BR  305  .L47  1912  v.l 
Lindsay,  Thomas  M.  1843- 
1914. 

A  history  of  the  Reformat! 


O] 


V.   I 


Zhc  Jnternatfoual  ^bcolooical  Xibrarv\ 


EDITED  BY 


CHARLES  A.   BRIGGS,   D.D., 

PfV/estor  0/  Theological  Encyclopcedia  and  Symbolics,   Union  Theological 
Seminary,  New  York; 


The  late  STEWART  D.  F.  SALMOND,  D.D., 

Prituipalf  and  Professor  of  Systematic  Theology  and  New  Testament  Exegesis^ 
United  Free  Church  College,  Aberdeen. 


A    HISTORY    OF    THE    REFORMATION. 

By  THOMAS  M.  LINDSAY, 
D.D..  LL.D. 


NTERNATIONAL     THEOLOGICAL     LIBRARY 


A    HISTORY 


OF 


THE    REFORMATION 


/ 
THOMAS  M.  LINDSAY,   MA.,   D.D. 

PBINCIPAL,   THB  UNITED   FRER  CHURCH 
COLLEGE,   QhASQOVr 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY 
FROM  ITS  BEGINNING  TO  THE 
BELIQIOUS    PEACE    OF    AUGSBURG 

SECOND  EDITION 


NEW  YORK 
CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1912 


fO 

The  Rev.  GEORGE  CLARK  HUTTO^^,  D.U 


PREFACE. 


This  History  of  the  Reformation  has  been  written  with 
the  intention  of  describing  a  great  religious  movement 
amid  its  social  environment.  The  times  were  heroic,  and 
produced  great  men,  with  striking  individualities  not 
easily  weighed  in  modern  balances.  The  age  is  sufficiently 
remote  to  compel  us  to  remember  that  while  the  morality 
of  one  century  can  be  judged  by  another,  the  men  who 
belong  to  it  must  be  judged  by  the  standard  of  their 
contemporaries,  and  not  altogether  by  ours.  The  religious 
revival  was  set  in  a  framework  of  political,  intellectual, 
and  economic  changes,  and  cannot  be  disentangled  from 
its  surroundings  without  danger  of  mutilation.  All  these 
things  add  to  the  difficulty  of  description. 

My  excuse,  if  excuse  be  needed,  for  venturing  on  the 
task  is  that  the  period  is  one  to  which  I  have  devoted 
special  attention  for  many  years,  and  that  I  have  read 
and  re-read  most  of  the  original  contemporary  sources 
of  information.  While  full  use  has  been  made  of  the 
labours  of  predecessors  in  the  same  field,  no  chapter  in  the 
volume,  save  that  on  the  political  condition  of  Europe,  has 
been  written  without  constant  reference  to  contemporary 
evidence. 

A  History  of  the  Eeformation,  it  appears  to  me,  must 
describe  five  distinct  but  related  things — the  social  and 
religious   conditions  of  the  age  out   of    which    the  great 


Vm  PREFACE 

movement  came;  the  Lutheran  Eeformation  down  to  1555, 
when  it  received  legal  recognition ;  tlie  Eeformatioii  in 
countries  beyond  Germany  which  did  not  submit  to  the 
guidance  of  Luther;  the  issue  of  certain  portions  of  the 
religious  life  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  Anabaptism,  Socinian- 
ism,  and  Anti-Trinitarianism  ;  and,  finally,  the  Counter- 
Keformation. 

The  second  follows  the  first  in  natural  succession  ;  but 
the  third  was  almost  contemporary  with  the  second.  If 
the  Eeformation  won  its  way  to  legal  recognition  earlier 
in  Germany  than  in  any  other  land,  its  beginnings  in 
France,  England,  and  perhaps  the  Netherlands,  had  ap- 
peared before  Luther  had  published  his  Theses.  I  have  not 
found  it  possible  to  describe  all  the  five  in  chronological 
order. 

This  volume  describes  the  eve  of  the  Eeformation  and 
the  movement  itself  under  the  guidance  of  Luther.  In  a 
second  volume  I  hope  to  deal  with  the  Eeformation  beyond 
Germany,  with  Anabaptism,  Socinianism,  and  kindred 
matters  which  had  their  roots  far  back  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  with  the  Counter-Eeformation. 

The  first  part  of  this  volume  deals  with  the  intellectual, 
social,  and  religious  life  of  the  age  which  gave  birth  to  the 
Eeformation.  The  intellectual  life  of  the  times  has  been 
frequently  described,  and  its  economic  conditions  are  begin- 
ning to  attract  attention.  But  few  have  cared  to  investigate 
popular  and  family  religious  life  in  the  decades  before  the 
great  revival.  Yet  for  the  history  of  the  Eeformation 
movement  nothing  can  be  more  important.  When  it  is 
studied,  it  can  be  seen  that  the  evangelical  revival  was 
not  a  unique  phenomenon,  entirely  unconnected  with  the 
immediate  past.  There  was  a  continuity  in  the  religious 
life  of  the  period.  The  same  hymns  were  sung  in  public 
and  in  private  after  the  Eeformation  which  had  been  in 


PREFACE  IX 

use  before  Luther  raised  the  standard  of  revolt.  Many  of 
the  prayers  in  the  Eeformation  liturgies  came  from  the 
service-books  of  the  mediaeval  Church.  Much  of  the 
family  instruction  in  religious  matters  received  by  the 
Eeformers  when  they  were  children  was  in  turn  taught  by 
them  to  the  succeeding  generation.  The  great  Reformation 
had  its  roots  in  the  simple  evangelical  piety  which  had 
never  entirely  disappeared  in  the  mediaeval  Church. 
"Lutlier's  teaching  was  recognised  by  thousands  to  be  no 
sliij-tling  novelty,  but  something  which  they  had  always 
aFlieart  believed,  though  they  might  not  have  been  able 
to  foVmulate  it.  It  is  true  that  Luther  and  his  fellow- 
Reformers  taught  their  generation  that  Our  Lord,  Jesus 
Christ,  filled  the  whole  sphere  of  God,  and  that  other 
mediators  and  intercessors  were  superfluous,  and  that 
they  also  delivered  it  from  the  fear  of  a  priestly  caste  ; 
but  men  did  not  receive  that  teaching  as  entirely  new; 
they  rather  accepted  it  as  something  they  had  always 
felt,  though  they  had  not  been  able  to  give  their  feelings 
due  and  complete  expression.  It  is  true  that  this  simple 
piety  had  been  set  in  a  framework  of  superstition,  and  that 
tlie  Church  had  been  generally  looked  upon  as  an  institution 
within  which  priests  exercised  a  secret  science  of  redemption 
through  their  power  over  the  sacraments  ;  but  the  old 
svangelical  piety  existed,  and  its  traces  can  be  found  when 
sought  for. 

A  portion  of  the  chapter  which  describes  the  family 
and  popular  religious  life  immediately  preceding  the  Re- 
formation has  already  appeared  in  the  London  Quarterly 
Review  for  October  1903. 

In  describing  the  beginnings  of  the  Lutheran  Reforma- 
tion, I  have  had  to  go  over  the  same  ground  covered  by  my 
chapter  on  "  Luther  "  contributed  to  the  second  volume  of 
the  Cambridge  Modern  History,  and  have  found  it  impossible 


X  PKEFACK 

not  to  repeat  m3^self.  This  is  specially  the  case  with  the 
account  given  of  the  theory  and  practice  of  Indulgences. 
It  ought  to  be  said,  however,  tliat  in  view  of  certain 
strictures  on  the  earlier  work  by  Eoman  Catholic  reviewers, 
I  have  gone  over  again  the  statements  made  about  Indul- 
gences by  the  great  mediaeval  theologians  of  the  thirteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries,  and  have  not  been  able  to  change 
the  opinions  previously  expressed. 

My  thanks  are  due  to  my  colleague,  Dr.  Denney,  and 
to  another  friend  for  the  care  they  have  taken  in  revising 
the  proof-sheets,  and  for  many  valuable  suggestions  which 
have  been  given  effect  ta 

THOMAS  M.  LINDSAY. 

March,  190%, 


CONTENTS. 

BOOK    L 
ON   THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION. 

CHAPTER  I. 
Thb  Papacy, 

I  1.  The  Papacy — Its  claim  to  universal  Supremacy    ,        , 

The  religious  background  of  the  claim 

Its  sanction  from  the  needs  of  the  practical  religious  life 

i  2.  The  Temporal  Supremacy 

§  3.  The  Spiritual  Supremacy 

Its  interference  with  the  secular  authority  . 

The  financial  exactions  of  the  unreformed  Papacy 


rA0B 

1 
2 
3 
6 
7 
8 
11 


CHAPTER  II. 
The  Political  Situation. 

i  1.  The  small  extent  of  Christendom  .        ,        ,        ,        .18 

§  2.  Consolidation,  the  ruling  political  principle  of  the  Period    .  19 

§  3.  England  and  its  consolidation  under  the  Tiidors           .        .  20 

§  4.  France  and  the  establishment  of  central  authority        ,        ,  22 

§  5.  Spain  became  wholly  Christian 26 

§  6.  Germany  and  Italy — not  compact  nationalities     ...  30 

§  7.  The  five  great  powers  of  Italy 32 

§8.  Germany  or  the  Empire — a  multiplicity  of  separate  princi- 

jialities 35 

Attempts  at  a  constitutional  unity 38 

The  election  of  Charles  v.  as  Emperor           •        •        •        •  40 


CHAPTER  III. 
The  Renaissance. 

i  1.  The  transition  from  the  Mediaeval  to  the  Modern  World 

I  2.  The  Revival  of  Literature  and  Art        .... 

xi 


42 
46 


Xll 


CONTENTS 


§    3.  Its  earlier  relation  to  Christianity 

§    4.  The  Brethren  of  the  Common  Lot 

§    6,  German  Universities,  Scliools  and  Scholarship 

§    6.  The  earlier  (ierman  Humanists  . 

§    7.  The  Humanist  Circles  in  the  Cities 

§    8.  Humanism  in  the  Universities     . 

§    9.  Reuchlin 

§  10.  The  Epistolae  Obsciirorum  Virorum 

§  11.  Ulrich  von  Hutten      . 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Social  Conditions. 

1.  Towns,  Trade,  and  Artisan  Life 

2.  Geographical   Discoveries  and  the  beginnings  of  a  World 

Trade 

3.  Increase  in  Wealth  and  luxurious  Living 

4.  The  condition  of  the  Peasantry 

5.  Earlier  Social  Revolts 

6.  The  Religious  Socialism  of  Hans  Bohm 

7.  The  Bundschuh  Revolts         .... 

8.  The  causes  of  the  continuous  Revolts    . 
Germany  full  of  social  discontent  and  class  hatreds 


CHAPTER  V. 

Family  and  Popular  Religious  Life  in  the  Decades 
before  the  reformation. 

§  1.  The  Devotion  of  Germany  to  the  Roman  Church 

§  2.  Preaching 

§  3.  Church  Festivals — Miracle  Plays — The  Feast  of  the  Ass 
§  4.  The  Family  Religious  Life — its  continuity  throughout  the 

period  of  the  Reformation      .... 
§  5,  A  superstitious  Religion  based  on  fear 

Pilgrimages,  Pilgrim  Guide-books 

Confraternities  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  and  St.  Anna 

Reformation  of  the  Mendicant  Orders  . 
§  6.  Non-Ecclesiastical  Religion 

Ecclesiastical  Refornis  carried  out  by  tlie  secular  authorities 

Mediaeval  Charity — Beggars,  ecclesiastical  and  other — Lay 
management  of  Charity 

The  Kalands  and  other  religious  confraternities   . 

Translations  of  the  Scriptures  into  German 
S  7.  The  Brethren  —  Mediaeval   Nonconformists  —  The    Praying 
Circles  of  the  Mystics — The  Unifas  Fratrum 


152 


CONTENTS  XUl 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Humanism  and  the  Reformation. 

I  1.  Savonarola  and  the  Cliristian  Humanists  of  Italy 
§  2.  John  Colet  and  the  Christian  Humanists  of  England 
Dislike  to  the  Scholastic  Theology 
Colet  and  the  Hierardiies  of  Dionysius  ,         . 

§  3.  P]rasmus — The  "  Christian  Phih>s(Jl)hy  " 

His  visit  to  England  and  how  it  marked  him 

His  writings  which  were  meant  to  serve  the  Reformation 

The  defects  of  the  Humanist  Reformation     .        •        • 


PAOB 

158 
163 
166 
169 
172 
177 
179 
186 


BOOK    II. 

THE  REFORMATION. 
CHAPTER  I. 


Luther  to  the  Beginning  of  the  Controversy  about 
Indulgences. 

S  1.  Why  Luther  was  successful  as  the  Leader  in  a  Reformation  189 

I  2.  Luther's  Youth  and  Education 193 

At  the  University  of  Erfurt  196 

§  3.  Luther  in  the  Erfurt  Convent 199 

§  4.  Luther's  Early  Life  at  Wittenberg 205 

§  5.  Luther's  Early  Lectures  on  Theology 208 

§  6.  The  Indulgence-seller  and  his  reception  in  a  German  city     .  213 

CHAPTER  II. 

From  the  Beginning  of  the  Indulgence  Controversy  to 

the  Diet  of  Worms. 

1 1.  The  theory  and  practice  of  Indulgences  in  the  sixteenth 

century 217 

The  Penitentiaries  and  the  early  Satisfactions  .  .  .218 
A  thesaurus  meritorum,  the  Sacrament  of  Penance,  and  the 

doctnim  of  Attrition 219 

Attritiony  Confeii.non,  and  Indulgence  the  mediaeval  scheme  of 

salvation  for  tiie  inditierent  Christian    ....  223 

Did  Indulgences  remit  (/7ti/n 225 

Luther  looked  at  Indulgences  from  their  pro^frcai  ejffect        ,  226 


nv  CONTENTS 

PAOI 

f  2.  Luther's  Theses  against  Indulgences 2-2S 

Luther  summoned  to  Rome 232 

The  mission  of  Charles  von  Miltitz 234 

I  3.  The  Leipzig  Disputation 236 

§  4,  The  three  Treatises — The  Liberty  of  a  Christian  Man,  To  the 
Nobility  of  the  German  Nation^  On  the  Babylonian  Cap- 
tivity of  the  Church  of  Christ    239 

S  6.  The  Bull  Exunje  Domine        .......  247 

Luther  burns  the  Papal  Bull 250 

8  6.  Luther,  the  representative  of  Germany          ....  252 

Luther  and  the  Humanists 255 

The  Elector  Frederick  of  Saxony 258 

CHAPTER  in.  "/. 

The  Diet  of  Worms. 

S    1.  The  Boman  Nuncio  Aleander      ..,,..  261 

I    2.  The  Emperor  Charles  v .        .  264 

i    3.  In  the  City  of  Worms 267 

Was  Luther  to  be  summoned  to  Worms  or  was  he  not?      .  270 

Luther's  journey  to  Worms 273 

I    4.  Luther  in  Worms 275 

I    6.  The  first  appearance  before  the  Diet 278 

I    6.  The  second  appearance  before  the  Diet        ....  284 

i    7.  The  Conferences 293 

Luther's  disappearance  and  the  consternation  produced       .  295 

§    8.  The  Ban  and  what  was  thought  of  it 297 

I    9.  Popular  Literature  —  revolutionary  liteiature  —  literat  ire 

directly  connected  with  the  Lutheran  movement          .  300 

§  10.  The  spread  of  Luther's  teaching 305 

§  11.  Andrew  Bodenstein  of  Carlstadt 311 

The  Wittenberg  Ordinance 314 

1 12,  Luther  back  in  Wittenberg         ••••••  316 

CHAPTER  IV.  / 

From  the  Diet  of  Worms  to  the  Close  or  the 
Peasants'  War. 

I  1.  The  continued  spread  of  Lutheran  teaching . 

The  Nuncio  Campeggio  and  his  intrigues  in  Germany 
I  2.  The  beginnings  of  division  in  Germany 

§  3.  The  Peasants'  War 

8  4.  Revolutionary  Manifestoes — The  Twelve  Articles 
S  6.  Luther  and  the  Peasants'  War  .... 
I  6.  Germany  divided  into  two  separate  camps     . 


319 
322 
324 
326 
331 
335 
338 


CONTENTS  XV 


CHAPTER  V. 

From  the  Diet  op  Speter,  1526,  to  the  Religious  Peace 
OF  Augsburg,  1555. 

PAQF 

I    1.  The  Diet  of  Speyer,  1526 34C 

Otto  von  Pack's  forgery 344 

§    2.  The  Protest  at  Speyer 346 

§    3.  Luther  and  Zwingli 347 

§    4.  The  ^farhurg  Colloquy 352 

The  Controversy  about  the  Sacrament  of  the  Supper  .        ,  353 

S    6.  The  Emperor  in  Germany 359 

I    6.  The  Diet  of  Augsburg,  1530 363 

i    7.  The  Augsburg  Confession 364 

§    8.  The  Reformation  to  be  crushed 368 

Luther  at  Coburg 369 

f    9.  The  Schmalkald  League 373 

Two   conflicting  ideas   of    reformation  —  Charles  v.  and 

Luther 375 

Ducal  Saxony  and  Electoral  Brandenburg  become  Protestant  377 

§  10.  The  Bigamy  of  Philip  of  Hesse 380 

A  General  Council  to  be  held  at  Trent        ....  383 

§  11.  Maurice  of  Saxony 384 

§  12.  Luther's  death      . 384 

Extent  of  reformed  Germany 386 

§  13.  The  Religious  War 389 

§  14.  The  Augsburg  Interim 390 

Charles  V.  defeated — The  Protestant  Conference  at  Passau  393 

I  15.  The  Religious  Peace  of  Augsburg 395 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Organisation  of  the  Lutheran  Churches. 

Principles  of  organisation 400 

The  Visitations 405 

Consistorial  Courts — Superintendents — Synods  .         .         .  412 

Democratic  constitution  for  the  Churcli  of  Hesse        .        .  415 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Lutheran  Reformation  outside  German r. 

Scandinavian  lands 417 

The  Reformation  in  Denmark  and  Norway         ,        ,        ,     419 
The  Reformation  in  Sweden 421 


XVI  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Thb  Religious  Principles  ixspirixg  the  Reformation. 

S  1.  The  Reformation  did  not  take  its  rise  from  a  criticism  of 

doctrines 42G 

§  2.  The  universal  Priesthood  of  Believers 4.35 

§  3.  Justification  by  Faith 444 

§  4.  Holy  Scripture 453 

§  5.  The  Person  of  Clirist              4G8 

§  6.  The  Church .480 

Chronological  Summary  .               #••••.  489 

Inaul           •         •         •         •         •                  •         e         •         •         .  616 


BOOK  I. 
ON  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION, 

CHAPTER  L 

THE  PAPACY.^ 

§  1.  Claim  to  Universal  Supreina/yy, 

The  long  struggle  between  the  Mediaeval  Church  and  the 
Mediaeval  Empire,  between  the  priest  and  the  warrior,^ 
ended,  in  the  earlier  half  of  the  thirteenth  century,  in  the 
overthrow  of  the  Hohenstaufens,  and  left  the  Papacy  sole 
inheritor  of  the  claim  of  ancient  Kome  to  be  sovereign  of 
the  civilised  world. 

Roma  caput  mundi  regit  orhis  frena  rotundi. 

^  Sources  :  Apparatus  super  quinque  libris  decretalium  (Strassburg, 
1488);  Burchard,  Diarium  (ed.  by  Thuasne,  Paris,  1883-1885),  in  3  vols.  ; 
Brand,  Narrenschiff  {ed.  by  Sirarock,  Berlin,  1872) ;  Denzinger,  Enchiridion 
Symbolorum  et  Definitionum,  quce  de  rebus  fidei  et  morum  a  coneiliis 
cecumenicis  et  summis  pontijicibus,  emanarunt  (Wiirzburg,  1900),  9th  ed.  ; 
Erler,  Der  Liber  Cancellarice  Apostolicce  vom  Jahre  IJfSO  (Leipzig,  1888) ; 
Faber,  Tractatus  de  Ruine  Ecclesie  Plandu  (Memraingen) ;  Murner, 
Schelmenzunft  and  Narrenbeschwbrung  (Nos.  85,  119-124  of  Nevdrucke 
deutschen  Litteraturwerke) ;  Mirbt,  Quellen  zur  Geschichte  des  Papsttums 
(Freiburg  i.  B.  1895)  ;  Tangl,  Die  pdpstlichen  Kamleiordnungen  von 
1200-1500  (Innsbruck,  1894) ;  and  Das  Taxwesen  der  pdpstlichen  Kirche 
{Mitt,  des  Instituls  filr  osterreichische  Geschichtsforschung^  xiii.  1892). 

Later  Books:  "Janus,"  The  Pope  and  the  Council  (London,  1869); 
Harnack,  History  of  Dogma  (London,  1899),  vols.  vi.  vii.  ;  Thudichen, 
Papsttum  und  Beformation  (Leipzig,  1903);  Haller,  Papsttum  und  Kirchen- 
Eeform  (1903) ;  Lea,  Cambridge  Modem  History  (Cambridga,  1902), 
▼oL  I.  xix. 

*  "  In  hac  (sc.  ecclesia)  ejusque  potestate  duos  esse  gladios,  spiritualem 
rldelicet  et  temporalem,  evangelicis  dictis  instruimur.  .  .  .  lUe  sacerdotiSy 
is  manu  regum  et  miiitum,  sed  ad  nutum  et  patienciam  saeerdoiis** ;  Boni- 
fiuM  YiiL  in  the  Boll,  I7nam  Sanciam. 


2  THE  PAPACY 

Strong  ind  masterful  Popes  had  for  centuries  insisted 
on  exercising  powers  which,  they  asserted,  belonged  to 
them  as  the  successors  of  St.  Peter  and  the  representatives 
of  Christ  upon  earth.  Ecclesiastical  jurists  had  translated 
their  assertions  into  legal  language,  and  had  expressed 
them  in  principles  borrowed  from  the  old  imperial  law. 
Precedents,  needed  by  the  legal  mind  to  unite  the  past  with 
the  present,  had  been  found  in  a  series  of  imaginary  papal 
judgments  extending  over  past  centuries.  The  forged 
decretals  of  the  pseudo-Isidor  (used  by  Pope  Nicholas  I.  in 
his  letter  of  866  A.D.  to  the  bishops  of  Gaul),  of  the  group 
of  canonists  who  supported  the  pretensions  of  Pope  Gregory 
VII.  (1073-1085), — Anselm  of  Lucca,  Deusdedit,  Cardinal 
Bonzio,  and  Gregory  of  Pavia, — gave  to  the  papal  claims  the 
semblance  of  the  sanction  of  antiquity.  The  Decretum  of 
Gratian,  issued  in  1150  from  Bologna,  then  the  most  famous 
Law  School  in  Europe,  incorporated  all  these  earlier 
forgeries  and  added  new  ones.  It  displaced  the  older 
collections  of  Canon  Law  and  became  the  starting-poiiit 
for  succeeding  canonists.  Its  mosaic  of  facts  and  false- 
hoods formed  the  basis  for  the  theories  of  the  imperial 
powers  and  of  the  universal  jurisdiction  of  the  Bishops  of 
Rome.^ 

The  picturesque  religious  background  of  this  conception 
of  the  Church  of  Christ  as  a  great  temporal  empire  had 
been  furnished  by  St.  Augustine,  although  probably  he 
would  have  been  the  first  to  protest  aga'nst  the  use  made 
of  his  vision  of  the  City  of  God.  His  unfinished  master- 
piece. Be  Civitate  Dei,  in  which  with  a  devout  and  glowing 
imagination  he  had  contrasted  the  Civitas  Terrena,  or  the 
secular  State  founded  on  conquest  and  maintained  by  fraud 
and  violence,  with  the  Kingdom  of  God,  which  he  identified 
with  the  visible  ecclesiastical  society,  had  filled  the 
imagination  of  all  Christians  in  the  days  immediately 
preceding  the  dissolution  of  the  Roman  Empire  of  the 
West,  and  had  contributed  in  a  remarkable  degjree  to  the 

^  A  succinct  account  of  these  forgeries  will  be  found  in   "Janus,'    The 
Pope  and  the  Cowncil  (London,  1869),  p.  94. 


UNIVERSAL    SUrREMACY  3 

final  overthrow  of  the  last  remains  of  a  cultured  paganism. 
It  became  the  sketch  outline  which  the  jurists  of  the 
Roman  Curia  gradually  filled  in  with  details  by  their 
strictly  defined  and  legally  expressed  claim  of  the  Koman 
Pontiff  to  a  universal  jurisdiction.  Its  living  but  poetically 
indefinite  ideas  were  transformed  into  clearly  defined  legal 
principles  found  ready-made  in  the  all-embracing  juris- 
prudence of  the  ancient  empire,  and  were  analysed  and 
exhibited  in  definite  claims  to  rule  and  to  judge  in  every 
de})artment  of  human  activity.  When  poetic  thoughts, 
which  from  their  very  nature  stretch  forward  towards  and 
melt  in  the  infinite,  are  imprisoned  within  legal  formulas 
and  are  changed  into  principles  of  practical  jurisprudence, 
they  lose  all  their  distinctive  character,  and  the  creation 
which  embodies  them  becomes  very  different  from  what 
it  was  meant  to  be.  The  mischievous  activity  of  the 
Ptoman  canonists  actually  transformed  the  Civitas  Dei  of 
the  glorious  vision  of  St.  Augustine  into  that  Civitas 
Terrena  which  he  reprobated,  and  the  ideal  Kingdom  of 
God  became  a  vulgar  earthly  monarchy,  with  all  the 
accompaniments  of  conquest,  fraud,  and  violence  which, 
according  to  the  great  theologian  of  the  West,  naturally 
belonged  to  such  a  society.  But  the  glamour  of  the  City 
of  God  long  remained  to  dazzle  the  eyes  of  gifted  and  pious 
men  during  the  earlier  Middle  Ages,  when  they  contem- 
plated the  visible  ecclesiastical  empire  ruled  by  the  Bishop 
of  Eome. 

The  requirements  of  the  practical  religion  of  everyday 
life  were  also  believed  to  be  in  the  possession  of  this 
ecclesiastical  monarchy  to  give  and  to  withhold.  For  it 
was  the  almost  universal  belief  of  mediaeval  piety  that  the 
mediation  of  a  priest  was  essential  to  salvation ;  and  the 
priesthood  was  an  integral  part  of  this  monarchy,  and  did 
not  exist  outside  its  boundaries.  "  No  good  Catholic 
Christian  doubted  that  in  spiritual  things  the  clergy  were 
the  divinely  appointed  superiors  of  the  laity,  that  this 
power  proceeded  from  the  right  of  the  priests  to  celebrate 
the  sacraments,  that  the  Pope  was  the  real  possessor  of 


A  TEE  PAPACY 

this  power,  and  was  far  superior  to  all  secular  authority.**^ 
In  the  decades  immediately  preceding  the  Eeformation, 
many  an  educated  man  might  have  doubts  about  this 
power  of  the  clergy  over  the  spiritual  and  eternal  welfare 
of  men  and  women ;  but  when  it  came  to  the  point,  almost 
no  one  could  venture  to  say  that  there  was  nothing  in  it. 
And  so  long  as  the  feeling  remained  that  there  might  be 
something  in  it,  the  anxieties,  to  say  the  least,  which 
Christian  men  and  women  could  not  help  having  when  they 
looked  forward  to  an  unknown  future,  made  kings  and 
peoples  hesitate  before  they  offered  defiance  to  the  Pope 
and  the  clergy.  The  spiritual  powers  which  were  believed 
to  come  from  the  exclusive  possession  of  priesthood  and 
sacraments  went  for  much  in  increasing  the  authority  of 
the  papal  empire  and  in  binding  it  together  in  one  com- 
pact whole. 

In  the  earlier  Middle  Ages  the  claims  of  the  Papacy 
to  universal  supremacy  had  been  urged  and  defended  by 
ecclesiastical  jurists  alo-ne ;  but  in  the  thirteenth  century 
theology  also  began  to  state  them  from  its  own  point  of 
view.  Thomas  Aquinas  set  himself  to  prove  that  sub- 
mission to  the  Roman  Pontiff  was  necessary  for  every 
human  being.  He  declared  that,  under  the  law  of  the  New 
Testament,  the  king  must  be  subject  to  the  priest  to  the 
extent  that,  if  kings  proved  to  be  heretics  or  schismatics, 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  was  entitled  to  deprive  them  of  all 
kingly  authority  by  releasing  subjects  from  their  ordinary 
obedience.* 

The  fullest  expression  of  this  temporal  and  spiritual 
supremacy  claimed  by  the  Bishops  of  Rome  is  to  be  found 
in  Pope  Innocent  iv.'s  Commentary  on  the  Decretals^  (1243- 
1254),  and  in  the  Bull,  Unam  Sanctam,  published  by  Pope 
Boniface  vni.  in  1302.     But  succeeding  Bishops  of  Rome 

*  Harnack,  History  of  Dogma,  vi.  132  n.  (Eng.  trans.). 

*  Compare  his  Opuscvia  contra  errores  Groccorum;  De  regimine  prindpum, 
(The  first  two  books  were  written  by  Thomas  and  the  other  two  probably  bj 
Tolomeo  (Ptolomaeus)  of  Lucca. ) 

*  Apparatiut  tuper  quinque  lihris  DecretaHum  (Straasburg,  1438)w 


TEMPORAL   SUPREMACY  5 

in  no  way  abated  their  pretensions  to  universal  sovereignty. 
The  same  claims  were  made  during  the  Exile  at  Avignon 
and  in  the  days  of  the  Great  Schism.  They  were  asserted 
by  Pope  Pius  li.  in  his  Bull,  Execrabilis  et  pristinis  (1469), 
and  by  Pope  Leo  x.  on  the  very  eve  of  the  Keformation,  in 
his  Bull,  Pastor  JSte7mus  (1516);  while  Pope  Alexander  vi. 
(Rodrigo  Borgia),  acting  as  the  lord  of  the  universe,  made 
over  the  New  World  to  Isabella  of  Castile  and  to  Ferdinand 
of  Aragon  by  legal  deed  of  gift  in  his  Bull,  Inter  ccetera 
divince  (May  4th,  1493).^ 

The  power  claimed  in  these  documents  was  a  twofold 
supremacy,  temporal  and  spiritual. 

§  2.  The  Temporal  Supremacy. 

The  former,  stated  in  its  widest  extent,  was  the  right 
to  depose  kings,  free  their  subjects  from  their  allegiance, 
and  bestow  tlieir  territories  on  another.     It  could  only  be 

*  Full  quotations  from  the  Bulls,  Unam  Sanctam  and  Inter  ccetera  divince, 
are  to  be  found  in  Mirbt's  Quellen  zur  Geschichte  ties  Papsttums  (Leipzig, 
1895),  pp.  88,  107.  The  Bulls,  Execrahilis  and  Pastor  JEternus,  are  in 
Denzinger,  Enchiridion  (Wiirzburg,  1900),  9th  ed.  pp.  172,  174. 

The  Deed  of  Gift  of  the  American  Continent  to  Isabella  and  Ferdinand  is 
in  the  6th  section  of  the  Bull,  loiter  c<Hera  divince.  It  is  as  follows: — 
**Motu  proprio  .  .  .  de  nostra  mera  liberalitate  et  ex  certa  scientia  ac  de 
apostolicse  potestatis  plenitudine  omnes  insulas  et  terras  firmas  inventas 
et  inveniendas,  detectas  et  detegendas  versus  Occidentem  et  Meridiem 
fabricando  et  construemlo  unam  lineam  a  Polo  Artico  scilicet  Septentrione 
ad  Polum  Antarticum  scilicet  Meridiem,  sive  terrse  firmae  et  insulae  inventse 
et  inveniendse  sint  versus  Indiam  aut  versus  aliam  quamcumque  partem, 
quae  linea  distet  a  qualibet  insularum,  quae  vulgariter  nuncupantur  de 
los  Azores  y  cabo  vierde,  centum  leucis  versus  Occidentem  et  Meridiem ; 
ita  quod  omnes  insulae  et  terrse  firmae,  repertae  et  reperiendae,  detectae  et 
detegendae,  a  praefata  linea  versus  Occidentem  et  Meridiem  per  alium 
Regem  aut  Principem  Christianum  non  fuerint  actualiter  possessae  usque  ad 
diem  nativitatis  Domini  Nostri  Jesu  Christi  proximi  praeteritum  .  .  . 
auctoritate  omnipotentis  Dei  nobis  in  Beato  Petro  concessa,  ac  vicarius  Jesu 
Christi,  qua  fungimur  in  terris,  cum  omnibus  illarum  dominiis,  civitatibus, 
castris,  locis  et  villis,  juribusque  et  jurisdictionibus  ac  pertinentiis  univeris, 
▼obis  haeredibusque  et  successoribus  vestris  in  perpetuum  ten  ore  praesfntium 
donamus.  .  .  .  Vosque  et  haeredes  ac  successores  praefatos  illarum  dominoa 
con  plena,  libera  et  omnimoda  potestate,  auctoritate  et  jurisdictione  faoimoa, 
oosstituimus  et  deputamuA." 


6  THE   PAPACY 

enforced  when  the  Pope  found  a  stronger  potentate  willing 
to  caiTy  out  his  orders,  and  was  naturally  but  rarely 
exercised.  Two  instances,  however,  occurred  not  long 
before  the  Reformation.  George  Podiebrod,  the  King  of 
Bohemia,  offended  the  Bishop  of  Eome  by  insisting  that 
the  Eoman  See  should  keep  the  bargain  made  with  his 
Hussite  subjects  at  the  Council  of  Basel.  He  was  summoned 
to  Rome  to  be  tried  as  a  heretic  by  Pope  Pius  ii.  in  1464, 
and  by  Pope  Paul  ii.  in  1465,  and  was  declared  by  the 
latter  to  be  deposed ;  his  subjects  were  released  from  their 
allegiance,  and  his  kingdom  was  offered  to  Matthias  Cor- 
vinus,  the  King  of  Hungary,  who  gladly  accepted  the  offer, 
and  a  protracted  and  bloody  war  was  the  consequence. 
Later  still,  in  1511,  Pope  Julius  ii.  excommunicated  the 
King  of  Navarre,  and  empowered  any  neighbouring  king  to 
seize  his  dominions — an  offer  readily  accepted  by  Ferdinand 
of  Aragon.^ 

It  was  generally,  however,  in  more  indirect  ways  that 
this  claim  to  temporal  supremacy,  i.e.  to  direct  the  policy, 
and  to  be  the  final  arbiter  in  the  actions  of  temporal 
sovereigns,  made  itself  felt.  A  great  potentate,  placed 
over  the  loosely  formed  kingdoms  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
hesitated  to  provoke  a  contest  with  an  authority  which 
was  able  to  give  religious  sanction  to  the  rebellion  of 
powerful  feudal  nobles  seeking  a  legitimate  pretext  for 
defying  him,  or  which  could  deprive  his  subjects  of  the 
external  consolations  of  religion  by  laying  the  whole  or 
part  of  his  dominions  under  an  interdict.  We  are  not  to 
suppose  that  the  exercise  of  this  claim  of  temporal  supre- 
macy was  always  an  evil  thing.  Time  after  time  the 
actions  and  interference  of  right-minded  Popes  proved  that 
the  temporal  supremacy  o.f  the  Bishop  of  Rome  meant  that 
moral  considerations  must  have  due  weight  attached  to 
them  in  the  international  affairs  of  Europe ;  and  this  fact, 

^This  excommunication,  with  its  consequences,  was  used  to  threaten 
Queen  Elizabeth  by  the  Ambassador  of  Philip  ii.  in  1559  {Calendar  of  Letters 
and  State  Papers  relating  to  English  affairs  preserved  principally  in  tJhs 
Archives  of  Simancas,  i.  62,  London,  1892). 


SPIRITUAL  SUPREMACT  7 

recognised  and  felt,  accounted  largely  for  much  of  the 
practical  acquiescence  in  the  papal  claims.  But  from  the 
time  when  the  Papacy  became,  on  its  temporal  side,  an 
Italian  power,  and  when  its  international  policy  had  for 
its  chief  motive  to  increase  the  political  prestige  of  the 
Bishop  of  Eome  within  the  Italian  peninsula,  the  moral 
standard  of  the  papal  court  was  hopelessly  lowered,  and 
it  no  longer  had  even  the  semblance  of  representing  morulity 
in  the  international  affairs  of  Europe.  The  change  may 
be  roughly  dated  from  the  pontificate  of  Pope  Sixtus  IV. 
(1471-1484),  or  from  the  birth  of  Luther  (November  10th, 
1483).  The  possession  of  the  Papacy  gave  this  advantage 
to  Sixtus  over  his  contemporaries  in  Italy,  that  he  "  was 
relieved  of  all  ordinary  considerations  of  decency,  con- 
sistency, or  prudence,  because  his  position  as  Pope  saved 
him  from  serious  disaster."  The  divine  authority,  assumed 
by  the  Popes  as  the  representatives  of  Christ  upon  earth, 
meant  for  Sixtus  and  his  immediate  successors  that  they 
were  above  the  requirements  of  common  morality,  and  had 
the  right  for  themselves  or  for  their  allies  to  break  the 
most  solemn  treaties  when  it  suited  their  shifting  policy. 

§  3.  7^e  Spiritual  Supremacy. 

The  ecclesiastical  supremacy  was  gradually  interpreted 
to  mean  that  the  Bishop  of  Eome  was  the  one  or  universal 
bishop  in  whom  all  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical  powers 
were  summed  up,  and  that  all  other  members  of  the 
hierarchy  were  simply  delegates  selected  by  him  for  the 
purposes  of  administration.  On  this  interpretation,  the 
Bishop  of  Eome  was  the  absolute  monarch  over  a  kingdom 
which  was  called  spiritual,  but  which  was  as  thoroughly 
material  as  were  those  of  France,  Spain,  or  England.  For, 
according  to  mediaeval  ideas,  men  were  spiritual  if  they  had 
taken  orders,  or  were  under  monastic  vows ;  fields,  drains, 
and  fences  were  spiritual  things  if  they  were  Church  pro- 
perty ;  a  house,  a  barn,  or  a  byre  was  a  spiritual  thing, 
if  it  stood  on  land  belonging  to  the  Church.     This  papal 


8  THE   PAPACfY 

kingdom,  miscalled  spiritual,  lay  scattered  over  Europe  in 
diocesan  lands,  convent  estates,  and  parish  glebes — inter- 
woven in  the  web  of  the  ordinary  kingdoms  and  princi- 
palities of  Europe.  It  was  part  of  the  Pope's  claim  to 
spiritual  supremacy  that  his  subjects  (the  clergy)  owed  no 
allegiance  to  the  monarch  within  whose  territories  they 
resided ;  that  they  lived  outside  the  sphere  of  civil  legis- 
lation and  taxation ;  and  that  they  were  under  special  laws 
imposed  on  them  by  their  supreme  spiritual  ruler,  and 
paid  taxes  to  him  and  to  him  alone.  The  claim  to  spiritual 
supremacy  therefore  involved  endless  interference  with  the 
rights  of  temporal  sovereignty  in  every  country  in  Europe, 
and  things  civil  and  things  sacred  were  so  inextricably 
mixed  that  it  is  quite  impossible  to  speak  of  the  Eeforma- 
tion  as  a  purely  religious  movement.  It  was  also  an 
endeavour  to  put  an  end  to  the  exemption  of  the  Church 
and  its  possessions  from  all  secular  control,  and  to  her  con- 
stant encroachment  on  secular  territory. 

To  show  how  this  claim  for  spiritual  supremacy  tres- 
passed continually  on  the  domain  of  secular  authority  and 
created  a  spirit  of  unrest  all  over  Europe,  we  have  only 
to  look  at  its  exercise  in  the  matter  of  patronage  to  bene- 
fices, to  the  way  in  which  the  common  law  of  the  Church 
interfered  with  the  special  civil  laws  of  European  States, 
and  to  the  increasing  burden  of  papal  requisitions  of  money. 

In  the  case  of  bishops,  the  theory  was  that  the  dean 
and  chapter  elected,  and  that  the  bishop-elect  had  to  be 
confirmed  by  the  Pope.  This  procedure  provided  for  the 
selection  locally  of  a  suitable  spiritual  ruler,  and  also  for 
the  supremacy  of  the  head  of  the  Church.  The  mediaeval 
bishops,  however,  were  temporal  lords  of  great  influence 
in  the  civil  affairs  of  the  kingdom  or  principality  within 
which  their  dioceses  were  placed,  and  it  was  naturally  an 
object  of  interest  to  kings  and  princes  to  secure  men 
who  would  be  faithful  to  themselves.  Hence  the  tendency 
was  for  the  civil  authorities  to  interfere  more  or  less  in 
episcopal  appointments.  This  frequently  resulted  in  making 
these  elections  a  matter  of  conflict  between  the  head  of 


RESERVATIONS  9 

the  Church  in  Bome  and  the  head  of  the  State  in  Frince, 
England,  or  Germany;  in  which  case  the  rights  of  the 
dean  and  chapter  were  commonly  of  small  account.  The 
contest  was  in  the  nature  of  things  almost  inevitable  even 
when  the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical  powers  were  actuated 
by  the  best  motives,  and  when  both  sought  to  appoint 
men  competent  to  discharge  the  duties  of  the  position  with 
ability.  But  the  best  motives  were  not  always  active. 
Diocesan  rents  were  large,  and  the  incomes  of  bishops  made 
excellent  provision  for  the  favourite  followers  of  kings  and 
of  Popes,  and  if  the  revenues  of  one  see  failed  to  express 
royal  or  papal  favour  adequately,  the  favourite  could  be 
appointed  to  several  sees  at  once.  Papal  nepotism  became 
a  byword ;  but  it  ought  to  be  remembered  that  kingly 
nepotism  also  existed.  Pope  Sixtus  v.  insisted  on  appoint- 
ing a  retainer  of  his  nephew,  Cardinal  Giuliano  della  Eovere, 
to  the  see  of  Modrus  in  Hungary,  and  after  a  contest  of 
three  years  carried  his  point  in  1483 ;  and  Matthias 
Corvinus,  King  of  Hungary,  gave  the  archbishopric  of  Gran 
to  IppoUto  d'Este,  a  youth  under  age,  and  after  a  two 
years'  struggle  compelled  the  Pope  to  confirm  the  appoint- 
ment in  1487. 

During  the  fourteenth  century  the  Papacy  endeavoured 
to  obtain  a  more  complete  control  over  ecclesiastical  ap- 
pointments by  means  of  the  system  of  Reservations  which 
figures  so  largely  in  local  ecclesiastical  affairs  to  the  dis- 
credit of  the  Papacy  during  the  years  before  the  Eeformation. 
For  at  least  a  century  earlier,  Popes  had  been  accustomed 
to  declare  on  various  pretexts  that  certain  benefices  were 
vacantes  apud  Sedem  Apostolicam,  which  meant  that  the 
Bisliop  of  Eome  reserved  the  appointment  for  himself. 
Pope  John  XXII.X1316-L334),  founding  on  such  previous 
practice,  laid  down  a  series  of  rules  stating  what  benefices 
were  to  be  reserved  for  the  papal  patronage.  The  osten- 
sible reason  for  this  legislation  was  to  prevent  the  growing 
evil  of  pluralities ;  but,  as  in  all  cases  of  papal  lawmaking, 
these  Constitutiones  Johannince  had  the  effect  of  binding 
ecclesiastically  all  patrons  but  the  Popes  themselves.     For 


10  THE   PAPACY 

t1i()  P.t])CR  alwa3\s  maintained  that  they  alone  were  superior 
to  the  laws  which  they  made.  They  wei-e  siipra  legem  or 
legibus  dbsoluti,  and  their  dispensations  could  always  set 
aside  their  legislation  when  it  suited  their  purpose.  Under 
these  constitutions  of  Pope  John  xxii.,  when  sees  were 
vacant  owing  to  the  invalidation  of  an  election  they  were 
rtscrccd  to  the  Pope.  Thus  we  find  that  there  was  a 
disputed  election  to  the  see  of  Dunkeld  in  1337,  and  after 
some  years'  litigation  at  Eome  the  election  was  quashed, 
and  Eichard  de  Pilmor  was  appointed  bishop  auctoritate 
apostolica.  The  see  of  Dunkeld  was  declared  to  be  reserved 
to  the  Pope  for  the  appointment  of  the  two  succeeding 
bishops  at  least.^  This  system  of  Reservations  was  gradu- 
ally extended  under  the  successors  of  Pope  John  xxir.,  and 
was  applied  to  benefices  of  every  kind  all  over  Europe,  until 
it  would  be  difficult  to  say  what  piece  of  ecclesiastical  pre- 
ferment escaped  the  papal  net.  There  exists  in  the  town 
library  in  Trier  a  MS.  of  the  Rules  of  the  Roman  Chancery 
on  which  someone  has  sketched  the  head  of  a  Pope,  with 
the  legend  issuing  from  the  mouth,  Reservamus  omnia,  which 
somewhat  roughly  represents  the  contents  of  the  book.  Tn 
the  end,  the  assertion  was  made  that  the  Holy  See  owned 
all  benefices,  and,  in  the  universal  secularisation  of  the 
Church  which  the  half  century  before  the  Keformation 
witnessed,  the  very  Eules  of  the  Eoman  Chancery  contained 
the  lists  of  prices  to  be  charged  for  various  benefices, 
whether  with  or  without  cure  of  souls ;  and  in  completing 
the  bargain  the  purchaser  could  always  procure  a  clause 
setting  aside  the  civil  rights  of  patrons. 

On  the  other  hand,  ecclesiastical  preferments  always 
implied  the  holders  being  liferented  in  lands  and  in 
monies,  and  the  right  to  bestow  these  temporalities  was 
protected  by  the  laws  of  most  European  countries.  Thus 
the  ever-extending  papal  reservations  of  benefices  led  to 
continual  conflicts  betw^een  the  laws  of  the  Church — in  this 
case  latterly  the  Eules  of  the  Eoman  Chancery — and  the 
laws  of  the  European  States.     Temporal  rulers  sought  to 

*  Scottish  Historieal  Review,  i.  318-320. 


EXACTIONS    IN    MONEY  11 

protect  th3mselves  and  tlioir  sul)jects  by  statutes  of  Prae- 
munire and  otliers  of  a  like  kind/  or  else  made  bargains 
with  the  Popes,  which  took  the  form  of  Concordats,  like 
that  of  Bonrgcs  (1438)  and  that  of  Vienna  (1448). 
Neither  statutes  nor  bargains  were  of  much  avail  against 
the  superior  diplomacy  of  the  Papacy,  and  the  dread  which 
its  supposed  possession  of  spiritual  powers  inspired  in  all 
classes  of  people.  A  Concordat  was  always  represented 
by  papal  lawyers  to  be  binding  only  so  long  as  the  good- 
will of  the  Pope  maintained  it ;  and  there  was  a  deep-seated 
feeling  throughout  the  peoples  of  Europe  that  the  Church 
was,  to  use  the  language  of  the  peasants  of  Germany,  "  the 
Pope's  House,"  and  that  he  had  a  right  to  deal  freely  with 
its  property.  Pious  and  patriotic  men,  like  Gascoigne  in 
England,  deplored  the  evil  effects  of  the  papal  reservations ; 
but  they  saw  no  remedy  unless  the  Almighty  changed  the 
heart  of  the  Holy  Father ;  and,  after  the  failures  of  the 
Conciliar  attempts  at  reform,  a  sullen  hopelessness  seemed 
to  have  taken  possession  of  the  minds  of  men,  until  Luther 
taught  them  that  there  was  nothing  in  the  indefinable 
power  that  the  Pope  and  the  clergy  claimed  to  possess  over 
the  spiritual  and  eternal  welfare  of  men  and  women. 

To  Pope  John  xxii.  (1316-1334)  belongs  the  credit 
or  discredit  of  creating  for  the  Papacy  a  machinery  for 
gathering  in  money  for  its  support.  His  situation  rendered 
this  almost  inevitable.  On  his  accession  he  found  himself 
with  an  empty  treasury ;  he  had  to  incur  debts  in  order 
to  live ;  he  had  to  provide  for  a  costly  war  with  the 
Visconti ;  and  he  had  to  leave  money  to  enable  his  suc- 
cessors to  carry  out  his  temporal  policy.  Few  Popes  lived 
so  plainly ;  his  money- getting  was  not  for  personal  luxury, 
but  for  the  supposed  requirements  of  the  papal  policy.  He 
was  the  first  Pope  who  systematically  made  the  dispensa- 
tion of  grace,  temporal  and  eternal,  a  source  of  revenue. 
Hitherto  the  charges  made   by  the   papal   Chancery  had 

•  The  two  English  statutes  of  Prccmnnire  are  printed  in  Gee  and  Hardy, 
Documents  illvMrative  of  Ihiglish  Church  History  (London,  1896),  pp.  103, 
122. 


12  THE  PAPACY 

been,  ostensibly  at  least,  for  actual  work  done — fees  foi 
clerking  and  registration,  and  so  on  John  made  the  fees 
proportionate  to  the  grace  dispensed,  or  to  the  power  of 
the  recipient  to  pay.  He  and  his  successors  made  the 
TitheSy  the  Annates,  Procurations,  Fees  for  the  bestowment 
of  the  Pallium,  the  Medii  Fructus,  Subsidies,  and  Dispensa- 
tions, regular  sources  of  revenue. 

The  Tithe — a  tenth  of  all  ecclesiastical  incomes  for 
the  service  of  the  Papacy — had  been  levied  occasionally 
for  extraordinary  purposes,  such  as  crusades.  It  was 
still  supposed  to  be  levied  for  special  purposes  only,  but 
necessary  occasions  became  almost  continuous,  and  the 
exactions  were  fiercely  resented.  When  Alexander  vi. 
levied  the  Tithe  in  1500,  he  was  allowed  to  do  so  in  Eng- 
land. The  French  clergy,  however,  refused  to  pay;  they 
were  excommunicated;  the  University  of  Paris  declared 
the  excommunication  unlawful,  and  the  Pope  had  to 
withdraw. 

The  Annates  were  an  ancient  charge.  From  the  begin- 
ning of  the  twelfth  century  the  incoming  incumbent  of  a 
benefice  had  to  pay  over  his  first  year's  income  for  local 
uses,  such  as  the  repairs  on  ecclesiastical  buildings,  or  as  a 
solatium  to  the  heirs  of  the  deceased  incumbent.  From 
the  begmning  of  the  thirteenth  century  prelates  and 
princes  were  sometimes  permitted  by  the  Popes  to  exact 
it  of  entrants  into  benefices.  One  of  the  earliest  recorded 
instances  was  when  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  was 
allowed  to  use  the  Annates  of  his  province  for  a  period 
of  seven  years  from  1245,  for  the  purpose  of  liquidating 
the  debts  on  his  cathedral  church.  Pope  John  xxil.  began 
to  appropriate  them  for  the  purposes  of  the  Papacy.  His 
predecessor  Clement  v.  (1305-1314)  had  demanded  all 
the  Annates  of  England  and  Scotland  for  a  period  of  three 
years  from  1316.  In  1316  John  made  a  much  wider 
demand,  and  in  terms  which  showed  that  he  was  prepared 
to  regard  the  Annates  as  a  permanent  tax  for  the  general 
purposes  of  the  Papacy.  It  is  difficult  to  trace  the  stages 
of  the  gradual  universal  enforcement  of  this  tax ;  but  in 


EXACTIONS  IN   MONEY  13 

the  decades  before  the  Keformation  it  was  commonly 
imposed,  and  averages  had  been  struck  as  to  its  amount.^ 
"  They  consisted  of  a  portion,  usually  computed  at  one-half, 
of  the  estimated  revenue  of  all  benefices  worth  more  than 
25  florins.  Thus  the  archbishopric  of  Rouen  was  taxed 
at  12,000  florins,  and  the  little  see  of  Grenoble  at  300  ; 
the  great  abbacy  of  St.  Denis  at  6000,  and  the  little 
St.  Ciprian  Poictiers  at  33;  while  all  the  parish  cures 
in  France  were  uniformly  rated  at  24  ducats,  equivalent 
to  about  30  florins.'*  Archbishoprics  were  subject  to  a 
special  tax  as  the  price  of  the  Fallium,  and  this  was  often 
very  large. 

The  Frocurationes  were  the  charges,  commuted  to 
money  payments,  which  bishops  and  archdeacons  were 
authorised  to  make  for  their  personal  expenses  while  on 
their  tours  of  visitation  throughout  their  dioceses.  The 
Popes  began  by  demanding  a  share,  and  ended  by  often 
claiming  the  whole  of  these  sums. 

Pope  John  xxii.  was  the  first  to  require  that  the 
incomes  of  vacant  benefices  (medii  frvxiui)  should  be  paid 
over  to  the  papal  treasury  during  the  vacancies.  The 
earliest  instance  dates  from  1331,  when  a  demand  was 
made  for  the  income  of  the  vacant  archbishopric  of  Gran 
in  Hungary ;  and  it  soon  became  the  custom  to  insist  that 
the  stipends  of  all  vacant  benefices  should  be  paid  into  the 
papal  treasury. 

Finally,  the  Popes  declared  it  to  be  their  right  to 
require  special  siihsidies  from  ecclesiastical  provinces,  and 
great  pressure  was  put  on  the  people  to  pay  these  so-called 
free-will  offerings. 

Besides  the  sums  which  poured  into  the  papal  treasury 
from  these  regular  sources  of  income,  irregular  sources 
afforded  still  larger  amounts  of  money.  Countless  dis- 
pensations were  issued  on  payment  of  fees  for  all  manner 
of  breachvo  yjf  can'^nical  and  moral  law — dispensations  for 
marriages  within  the  prohibited  degrees,  for  Tioiamg  piurcti. 

^  For  iuformation  al»out  the  English  annates  and  the  vaii/r  ecclesicuiicus, 
^f.  Bird,  Harulhtyok  to  the  Public  Records,  pp.  100,  100. 


14  THE  PAPACY 

ities,  for  acquiring  unjust  gains  in  trade  or  otherwise.  This 
demoralising  traffic  made  the  Eoman  treasury  the  partner 
in  all  kinds  of  iniquitous  actions,  and  Luther,  in  his  address 
To  the  Nobility  of  the  German  Nation  respecting  the  Reforma- 
tion of  the  Christian  Estate,  could  fitly  describe  the  Court  c)i 
the  Koman  Curia  as  a  place  "  where  vows  were  annulled, 
where  the  monk  gets  leave  to  quit  his  Order,  where  priests 
can  enter  the  married  life  for  money,  where  bastards  can 
become  legitimate,  and  dishonour  and  shame  may  arrive 
at  high  honours;  all  evil  repute  and  disgrace  is  knighted 
and  ennobled."  "There  is,"  he  adds,  "a  buying  and  a 
selling,  a  changing,  blustering  and  bargaining,  cheating  and 
lying,  robbing  and  stealing,  debauchery  and  villainy,  and 
all  kinds  of  contempt  of  God  that  Antichrist  could  not 
reign  worse." 

The  vast  sums  of  money  obtained  in  these  ways  do  not 
represent  the  whole  of  the  funds  which  flowed  from  all 
parts  of  Europe  into  the  papal  treasury.  The  Eoman 
Curia  was  the  highest  court  of  appeal  for  the  whole  Church 
of  the  West.  In  any  case  this  involved  a  large  amount 
of  law  business,  with  the  inevitable  legal  expenses ;  but 
the  Curia  managed  to  attract  to  itself  a  large  amount 
of  business  which  might  have  been  easily  settled  in  the 

fiscopal  or  metropolitan  courts.  This  was  done  in  pur- 
ance  of  a  double  policy — an  ecclesiastical  and  a  financial 
one.  The  half  century  before  the  Eeformation  saw  the 
overthrow  of  feudalism  and  the  consolidation  of  kingly 
absolutism,  and  something  similar  was  to  be  seen  in  the 
Papacy  as  well  as  among  the  principalities  of  Europe. 
Just  as  the  kingly  absolutism  triumphed  when  the  heredi- 
tary feudal  magnates  lost  their  power,  so  papal  absolutism 
could  only  become  an  accomplished  fact  when  it  could 
trample  upon  an  episcopate  deprived  of  its  ecclesiastical 
independence  and  inherent  powers  of  ruling  and  judging. 
The  Episcopate  was  weakened  in  many  ways, — by  exempt- 
ing abbacies  from  episcopal  control,  by  encouraging  the 
mendicant  monks  to  become  the  rivals  of  the  parish 
clergy,  and   so  on, — but  the  most  potent  method  of  de- 


THE   PAPAL   CHANCERY  15 

grading  it  was  by  encouraging  people  with  ecclesiastical 
complaints  to  pass  by  the  episcopal  courts  and  to  carry 
their  cases  direclly  to  the  Pope.  Nationalities,  men  were 
told,  had  no  place  within  the  Catholic  Church.  Eome  was 
the  common  fatherland,  and  the  Pope  the  universal  bishop 
and  judge  ordinary.  His  judgment,  which  was  always 
final,  could  be  had  directly.  In  this  way  men  were 
enticed  to  take  their  pleas  straight  to  the  Pope.  No 
doubt  this  involved  sending  a  messenger  to  Italy  with  a 
statement  of  the  plea  and  a  request  for  a  hearing;  but  it 
did  not  necessarily  involve  that  the  trial  should  take  place 
at  Rome.  The  central  power  could  delegate  its  authority, 
and  the  trial  could  take  place  wherever  the  Pope  might 
appoint.  But  the  conception  undoubtedly  did  increase 
largely  the  business  of  the  courts  actually  held  in  Eome, 
and  caused  a  flow  of  money  to  the  imperial  city.  The 
Popes  were  also  ready  to  lend  monies  to  impoverished 
litigants,  for  which,  of  course,  heavy  interest  was  charged. 

The  immense  amount  of  business  which  was  thus 
directed  into  the  papal  chancery  from  all  parts  of  Europe 
required  a  horde  of  officials,  whose  salaries  were  provided 
partly  from  the  incomes  of  reserved  benefices  all  over 
Europe,  and  partly  from  the  fees  and  bribes  of  the  litigants. 
The  papal  law-courts  were  notoriously  dilatory,  rapacious, 
and  venal.  Every  document  had  to  pass  through  an  in- 
credible number  of  hands,  and  pay  a  corresponding  number 
of  fees ;  and  the  costs  of  suits,  heavy  enough  according  to 
the  prescribed  rule  of  the  chancery,  were  increased  im- 
mensely beyond  the  regular  charges  by  others  which  did 
not  appear  on  the  official  tables.  Cases  are  on  record 
where  the  hriefs  obtained  cost  from  twenty-four  to  forty- 
one  times  the  amount  of  the  legitimate  official  charges. 
The  Roman  Church  had  become  a  law-court,  not  of  the 
most  reputable  kind,  —  an  arena  of  rival  litigants,  a 
chancery  of  writers,  notaries,  and  tax-gatherers, — where 
transactions  about  privileges,  dispensations,  buying  of  bene- 
fices, etc.,  were  carried  on,  and  where  suitors  went  wandering 
with  their  petitions  from  the  door  of  one  office  to  another. 


16  THB  PAPACY 

During  the  Half  century  which  preceded  the  Eete- 
mation,  things  went  from  bad  to  worsa  The  fears  aroused 
bj  the  attempts  at  a  reform  through  General  Councila 
had  died  down,  and  thp  Curia  had  no  desire  to  reform 
itself.  The  venality  and  rapacity  increased  when  Popes 
began  to  seu  offices  in  the  papal  court.  Boniface  ix. 
^fl 3 8 9— 1404)  was  the  first  to  raise  money  by  selling  these 
official  posts  to  the  highest  bidders.  "In  1483,  when 
Sixtus  rv.  (1471-1484)  desired  to  redeem  his  tiara  and 
jewels,  pledged  for  a  loan  of  100,000  ducats,  he  increased 
his  secretaries  from  six  to  twenty-four,  and  required  each  to 
pay  2600  florins  for  the  office.  In  1503,  to  raise  funds 
for  Caesar  Borgia,  Alexander  VI.  (1492—1503)  created 
eighty  new  offices,  and  sold  them  for  760  ducats  apiece. 
Julius  II.  formed  a  'college'  of  one  hundred  and  one 
scriveners  of  papal  briefs,  in  return  for  which  they  paid 
him  74,000  ducats.  Leo  x.  (1513-1521)  appointed  sixty 
chamberlains  and  a  hundred  and  forty  squires,  with  certain 
perquisites,  for  which  the  former  paid  him  90,000  ducats 
and  the  latter  112,000.  Places  thus  paid  for  were 
personal  property,  transferable  on  sale.  Burchard  tells  u^ 
that  in  1483  he  bought  the  mastership  of  ceremonies  from 
his  predecessor  Patrizzi  for  450  ducats,  which  covered  all 
expenses;  that  in  1505  he  vainly  offered  Julius  n.  (1503- 
1513)  2000  ducats  for  a  vacant  scrivenership,  and  that 
soon  after  he  bought  the  succession  to  an  abbreviatorship 
for  2040."!  When  Adrian  vi.  (1522-1523)  honestly 
%ied  to  cleanse  this  Augean  stable,  he  found  himself  cow- 
fronted  with  the  fact  that  he  would  have  to  turn  men 
adrift  who  had  spent  their  capital  in  buying  the  places 
which  any  reform  must  suppress. 

The  papal  exactions  needed  to  support  this  luxurious 
Boman  Court,  especially  those  taken  from  the  clergy  of 
Europe,  were  so  obnoxious  that  it  was  often  hard  to  collect 
them,  and  devices  were  used  which  in  the  end  increased 
the  burdens  oi  toose  who  were  required  to  provide  tht 
money.     The  papal  court  made  bargains  with  the  temporal 

*  H,  0.  Lea,  Cambridgi'  .\f  H^-r-n  /fisf^ry,  i.  870. 


THE   OPEN   SORE   OF   EUROPE  17 

rulers  to  share  the  spoils  if  they  permitted  the  collection.^ 
The  Popes  agreed  that  the  kings  or  princes  could  seize  the 
Tithes  or  Annates  for  a  prescribed  time  provided  the  papal 
officials  had  their  authority  to  collect  them,  as  a  rule,  for 
Koman  use.  In  the  decades  before  the  Eeformation  it 
was  the  common  practice  to  collect  these  dues  by  means 
of  agents,  often  bankers,  whose  charges  were  enormous, 
amounting  sometimes  to  fifty  per  cent.  The  collection  of 
such  extraordinary  sources  of  revenue  as  the  Indulgences 
was  marked  by  even  worse  abuses,  such  as  the  employ- 
ment of  pardon-sellers,  who  overran  Europe,  and  whose  lies 
and  extortions  were  the  common  theme  of  the  denuncia- 
tions of  the  greatest  preachers  and  patriots  of  the  times. 

The  unreformed  Papacy  of  the  closing  decades  of  the 
fifteenth  and  of  the  first  quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century 
was  the  open  sore  of  Europe,  and  the  object  of  execrations 
by  almost  all  contemporary  writers.  Its  abuses  found 
no  defenders,  and  its  partisans  in  attacking  assailants 
contented  themselves  with  insisting  upon  the  necessity 
for  the  spiritual  supremacy  of  the  Bishops  of  Eome. 

"Sant  Peters  schifflin  ist  im  schwangk 
Ich  sorge  fast  den  untergangk, 
Die  wallen  schlagen  allsit  dran, 
Es  wiirt  vil  sturra  und  plagen  lian."* 

*  J.  Haller,  Papsttum  und  Kirchen-Reform  (1903),  i.  116,  117. 

*  Sebastian  Brand,  Das  Narrenschiffy  cap.  ciii.  1.  63-66.     Barclay  para- 

phr  ases  these  lines  :      •-————"-  - 

"Suche  counterfayte  the  kayes  that  Jesu  dyd  commyt 
Unto  Peter:  brekynge  his  Shyppis  takelynge, 
Subvertynge  the  fayth,  beleuynge  theyr  owns  wyt 
\      Against  our  perfyte  fayth  in  euery  thyuge, 
So  is  our  Shy})  without  gyde  wanderynge. 
By  tempest  dryuen,  and  the  mayne  sayle  of  torne. 
That  without  gyde  the  Shyp  about  is  borne." 

—The  Ship  of  Fools,  translated  by  Alexander  Barclay,  ii.  225  (Edinburgh, 
1874). 


CHAPTER  11. 

THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION.* 

§  1.  ITie  small  extent  of  Christendom, 

During  the  period  of  the  Eeformation  a  small  portion 
of  the  world  belonged  to  Christendom,  and  of  that  only  a 
part  was  affected,  either  really  or  nominally,  by  the  move- 
ment. The  Christians  belonging  to  the  Greek  Church 
were  entirely  outside  its  influence. 

Christendom  had  shrunk  greatly  since  the  seventh 
century.  The  Saracens  and  their  successors  in  Moslem 
sovereignty  had  overrun  and  conquered  many  lands  which 
had  formerly  been  inhabited  by  a  Christian  population 
and  governed  by  Christian  rulers.  Palestine,  Syria,  Asia 
Minor,  Egypt,  and  North  Africa  westwards  to  the  Straits 
of  Gibraltar,  had  once  been  Christian,  and  had  been  lost 
to  Christendom  during  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries. 
The  Moslems  had  invaded  Europe  in  the  West,  had  con- 
quered the  Spanish  Peninsula,  had  passed  the  Pyrenees, 
and  had  invaded  France.  They  were  met  and  defeated  in 
a  three  days'  battle  at  Tours  (732)  by  the  Franks  under 
Charles  the  Hammer,  the  grandfather  of  Charles  the  Great. 
After  they  had  been  thrust  back  beyond  the  Pyrenees,  the 
Spanish  Peninsula  was  the  scene  of  a  struggle  between 
Moslem  and  Christian  which  lasted  for  more  than  seven 
hundred  years,  and  Spain  did  not  become  wholly  Christian 
until  the  last  decade  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

If  the  tide  of  Moslem  conquest  had  been  early  checked 
in  the  West,  in  the  East  it  had  flowed  steadily  if  slowly. 

^  Cambridge  Modem  History,  i.  iii,  vii,  viii,  ix,  xi,  xii,  xiv;  Lavisse, 
Uistoire  de  France  dejpuis  les  Origines  jusqu'  d.  la  Revolution,  iv.  i.  ii. 

18 


POLITICAL    CONSOLIDATION  19 

In  1338,  Orchan,  Sultan  of  the  Ottoman  Turks,  seized  on 
Gallipoli,  the  fortified  town  which  guarded  the  eastern 
entrance  to  the  Dardanelles,  and  the  Moslems  won  a  foot- 
ing on  European  soil.  A  few  years  later  the  troops  of  his 
son  Murad  L  had  seized  a  portion  of  the  Balkan  peninsula, 
and  had  cut  off  Constantinople  from  the  rest  of  Chris- 
tendom. A  hundred  years  after,  Constantinople  (1453) 
had  fallen,  the  Christian  population  had  been  slain  or 
enslaved,  the  great  church  of  the  Holy  Wisdom  (St.  Sophia) 
had  been  made  a  Mohammedan  mosque,  and  the  city  had 
become  the  metropolis  of  the  wide-spreading  empire  of  the 
Ottoman  Turks.  Servia,  Bosnia,  Herzogovina  (the  Duchy, 
from  Herzog,  a  Duke),  Greece,  the  Peloponnesus,  Koumania, 
Wallachia,  and  Moldavia  were  incorporated  in  the  Moslem 
Empire.  Belgrade  and  the  island  of  Ehodes,  the  two 
bulwarks  of  Christendom,  had  fallen.  Germany  waa 
threatened  by  Turkish  invasions,  and  for  years  the  bells 
tolled  in  hundreds  of  German  parishes  calling  the  people  to 
pray  against  the  coming  of  the  Turk.  It  was  not  until 
the  heroic  defence  of  Vienna,  in  1529,  that  the  victorious 
advance  of  the  Moslem  was  stayed.  Only  the  Adriatic 
separated  Italy  from  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and  the  great 
mountain  wall  with  the  strip  of  Dalmatian  coast  which 
lies  at  its  foot  was  the  bulwark  between  civilisation  and 
barbarism. 

§  2.  Consolidation, 

In  Western  Europe,  and  within  the  limits  affected 
directly  or  indirectly  by  the  Eeformation,  the  distinctive 
political  characteristic  of  the  times  immediately  preceding 
the  movement  was  consolidation  or  coalescence.  Feudalism, 
with  its  liberties  and  its  lawlessness,  was  disappearing,  and 
compact  nations  were  being  formed  under  monarchies 
which  tended  to  become  absolute.  If  the  Scandinavian 
North  be  excluded,  five  nations  included  almost  the  whol(« 
field  of  Western  European  life,  and  in  all  of  them  the  prin- 
ciple of  consolidation  is  to  be  seen  at  work.  In  three 
England,  France,  and  Spain,  there  emerged  great  united 


20  THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION 

kingdoms ;  and  if  in  two,  Germany  and  Italy,  there  was 
no  clustering  of  the  people  round  one  dynasty,  the  same 
principle  of  coalescence  showed  itself  in  the  formation  of 
permanent  States  which  had  all  the  appearance  of  modern 
kingdoms. 

It  is  important  for  our  purpose  to  glance  at  each  and 
show  the  principle  at  work. 


§  3.  England 

By  the  time  that  the  Earl  of  Eichmond  had  ascended 
the  English  throne  and  ruled  with  "  politic  governance  "  as 
Henry  VIL,  the  distinctively  modern  history  of  England 
had  begun.  Feudalism  had  perished  on  the  field  of  the 
battle  of  Bosworth.  The  visitations  of  the  Black  Death, 
the  gigantic  agricultural  labour  strike  under  Wat  Tyler  and 
priest  Ball,  and  the  consequent  transformation  of  peasant 
serfs  into  a  free  people  working  for  wages,  had  created  a 
new  England  ready  for  the  changes  which  were  to  bridge 
the  chasm  between  mediaeval  and  modern  history.  The 
consolidation  of  the  people  was  favoured  by  the  English 
custom  that  the  younger  sons  of  the  nobility  ranked  as 
commoners,  and  that  the  privileges  as  well  as  the  estates 
went  to  the  eldest  sons.  This  kept  the  various  classes  of 
the  population  from  becoming  stereotyped  into  castes,  as  in 
Germany,  France,  and  Spain,  It  tended  to  create  an  ever- 
increasing  middle  class,  which  was  not  confined  to  the 
towns,  but  permeated  the  country  districts  also.  The 
younger  sons  of  the  nobility  descended  into  this  middle 
class,  and  the  transformation  of  the  serfs  into  a  wage-earn- 
ing class  enabled  some  of  them  to  rise  into  it.  England 
was  the  first  land  to  become  a  compact  nationality. 

The  earlier  portion  of  the  reign  of  Henry  vii.  was  not 
free  from  attempts  which,  if  successful,  would  have  thrown 
the  country  back  into  the  old  condition  of  disintegration. 
Although  the  king  claimed  to  unite  the  rival  lines  of  York 
and  Lancaster,  the  Yorkists  did  not  cease  to  raise  difficulties 
at  home  which  were  eagerly  fostered  from  abroad.    Ireland 


ENGLAND  21 

was  a  Yorkist  stronghold,  and  Margaret,  the  dowager 
Duchess  of  Burgundy,  the  sister  of  Edward  iv.,  exercised  a 
sufficiently  powerful  influence  in  Flanders  to  make  that 
land  a  centre  of  Yorkist  intrigue. 

Lambert  Simnel,  a  pretender  who  claimed  to  be  either 
the  son  or  the  nephew  of  Edward  IV.  (his  account  of  him- 
self varied),  appeared  in  Ireland,  and  the  whole  island 
gathered  round  him.  He  invaded  England,  drew  to  his 
standard  many  of  the  old  Yorkists,  but  was  defeated  at 
Stoke-on-Trent  in  1487.  This  was  really  a  formidable 
rebellion.  The  rising  under  Perkin  Warbeck,  a  young 
Burgundian  from  Tournay,  though  supported  by  Margaret 
of  Burgundy  and  James  iv.  of  Scotland,  was  more  easily 
suppressed.  A  popular  revolt  against  severe  taxation  was 
subdued  in  1497,  and  it  may  be  said  that  Henry's  home 
difficulties  were  all  over  by  the  year  1500.  England 
entered  the  sixteenth  century  as  a  compact  nation. 

The  foreign  policy  of  Henry  vii.  was  alliance  with 
Spain  and  a  long-sighted  attempt  to  secure  Scotland  by 
peaceful  means.  It  had  for  consequences  two  marriages 
which  had  far-reaching  results.  The  marriage  of  Henry  s 
daughter  Margaret  with  James  IV.  of  Scotland  led  to  the 
union  of  the  two  crowns  three  generations  later ;  and  that 
between  Katharine,  the  third  daughter  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella  of  Spain,  and  the  son  of  Henry  vii.  came  to  be 
the  occasion,  if  not  the  cause,  of  the  revolt  of  England  from 
Eome.  Katharine  was  married  to  Arthur,  Prince  of  Wales, 
in  1 5  0 1  (November  1 4th).  Prince  Arthur  died  on  January 
14th,  1502.  After  protracted  negotiation,  lengthened 
by  the  unwillingness  of  the  Pope  (Pius  in.)  to  grant  a 
dispensation,  Katharine  was  contracted  to  Henry,  and  the 
marriage  took  place  in  the  year  of  Prince  Henry's  accession 
to  the  crown.  Katharine  and  Henry  were  crowned  together 
at  Westminster  on  June  28th,  1509. 

England  had  prospered  during  the  reign  of  the  first 
Tudor  sovereign.  The  steady  increase  in  wool-growing  and 
wool-exporting  is  in  itself  testimony  to  the  fact  that  the 
period  of  internal  wars  had   ceased,  for  sheep  speedily 


22  THE    POLITICAL   SITUATION 

become  extinct  when  bands  of  raiders  disturb  the  country. 
The  growth  in  the  number  of  artisan  capitalists  shows  that 
money  had  become  the  possession  of  all  classes  in  the  com- 
munity. The  rise  of  the  companies  of  merchant  adven- 
turers proves  that  England  was  taking  her  share  in  the 
world-trade  of  the  new  era.  English  scholars  like  Grocyn 
and  Linacre  (tutor  in  Italy  of  Pope  Leo  X.  and  in  England 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales)  had  imbibed  the  New  Learning 
in  Italy,  and  had  been  followed  there  by  John  Colet,  who 
caught  the  spirit  of  the  Eenaissance  from  the  Italian 
Humanists  and  the  fervour  of  a  religious  revival  from 
Savonarola's  work  in  Florence.  The  country  had  emerged 
from  Mediaevalism  in  almost  everything  when  Henry  VIIL, 
the  hope  of  the  English  Humanists  and  reformers,  ascended 
the  throne  in  1509. 

§  4.  France. 

If  England  entered  on  the  sixteenth  century  as  the 
most  compact  kingdom  in  Europe,  in  the  sense  that  all 
classes  of  its  society  were  welded  together  more  firmly 
than  anywhere  else,  it  may  be  said  of  France  at  the  same 
date  that  nowhere  was  the  central  authority  of  the  sovereign 
more  firmly  established.  Many  things  had  worked  for  this 
state  of  matters.  The  Hundred  Years'  War  with  England 
did  for  France  what  the  wars  against  the  Moors  had  done 
for  Spain.  It  had  created  a  sense  of  nationality.  It  had 
also  made  necessary  national  armies  and  the  raising  of 
national  taxes.  During  the  weary  period  of  anarchy  under 
Charles  Vi.  every  local  and  provincial  institution  of  France 
had  seemed  to  crumble  or  to  display  its  inefficiency  to  help 
the  nation  in  its  sorest  need.  The  one  thing  which  was 
able  to  stand  the  storms  and  stress  of  the  time  was  the 
kingly  authority,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  incapacity  of  the 
man  who  possessed  it.  The  reign  of  Charles  vn.  had  made 
it  plain  that  England  was  not  destined  to  remain  in  pos- 
session of  French  territory ;  and  the  succeeding  reigns  had 
seen  the  central  authority  slowly  acquiring  irresistib/e 
strength.     Charles  vn.  by  his  policy  of  yielding  slightly  to 


FRANCE  '2'^ 

pressure  and  sittiiij^  "till  when  he  could — by  his  inactivity, 
perhaps  masterly, — Louis  xi.  by  his  restless,  unscrupulous 
craft,  Anne  of  Beaujeu  (his  daughter)  by  her  clear  insight 
and  prompt  decision,  had  not  only  laid  the  foundations,  but 
built  up  and  consolidated  the  edifice  of  absolute  m.onarchy 
in  France.  The  kingly  power  had  subdued  tlie  great  nobles 
and  feudatories ;  it  had  to  a  large  extent  mastered  the 
Church ;  it  had  consolidated  the  towns  and  made  them 
props  to  its  power ;  and  it  had  made  itself  the  direct  lord 
of  the  peasants. 

The  work  of  consolidation  had  been  as  rapid  as  it  was 
complete.  In  1464,  three  years  after  his  succession, 
Louis  XI.  was  confronted  by  a  formidable  association  of  tlie 
great  feudatories  of  France,  which  called  itself  the  League 
;/  Public  Weal.  Charles  of  Guyenne,  the  king's  brother, 
;he  Count  of  Charolais  (known  as  Charles  the  Bold  of 
Burgundy),  the  Duke  of  Brittany,  the  two  great  families 
of  the  Armagnacs,  the  elder  represented  by  the  Count  of 
Armagnac,  and  the  younger  by  the  Duke  of  Nemours, 
John  of  Anjou,  Duke  of  Calabria,  and  the  Duke  of  Bour- 
bon, were  allied  in  arms  against  the  king.  Yet  by  1465 
Normandy  had  been  wrested  from  the  Duke  of  Guyenne ; 
Guyenne  itself  had  become  the  king's  in  1472 ;  the  Duke 
of  Nemours  had  been  crushed  and  slain  in  1476  ;  the 
Count  of  Charolais,  become  Duke  of  Burgundy,  had  been 
overthrown,  his  power  shattered,  and  himself  slain  by  the 
Swiss  peasant  confederates,  and  almost  all  his  French  fiefs 
had  been  incorporated  by  1480  ;  and  on  the  death  of 
King  Ken^  (1480)  the  provinces  of  Anjou  and  Provence 
had  been  annexed  to  the  Crown  of  France.  The  great 
feudatories  were  so  thoroughly  broken  that  their  attempt 
to  revolt  during  the  earlier  years  of  the  reign  of  Charles  viii. 
was  easily  frustrated  by  Anne  of  Beaujeu  acting  on  behalf 
of  the  young  king. 

The  efforts  to  secure  hold  on  the  Church  date  back 
from  the  days  of  the  Council  of  Basel,  when  Pope  Eugenius 
was  at  hopeless  issue  with  the  majority  of  its  members. 
In  1438  a  deputation  from  the  Council  waited  upon  the 


24  THE   POLITICAL   SITUATION 

king  and  laid  before  him  the  conciliar  plans  of  reform 
Charles  vn.  summoned  an  assembly  of  the  French  clergy  to 
meet  at  Bourges.  He  was  present  himself  with  his  princi- 
pal nobles ;  and  the  meeting  was  also  attended  by  members 
of  the  Council  and  by  papal  delegates.  There  the  cele- 
brated Pragmatic  Sanction  of  Bourges  was  formally  pre- 
sented and  agreed  upon. 

This  Pragmatic  Sanction  embodied  most  of  the  cherished 
conciliar  plans  of  reform.  It  asserted  the  ecclesiastical 
supremacy  of  Councils  over  Popes.  It  demanded  a  meet- 
ing of  a  Council  every  ten  years.  It  declared  that  the 
selection  of  the  higher  ecclesiastics  was  to  be  left  to  the 
Chapters  and  to  the  Convents.  It  denied  the  Pope's 
general  claim  to  the  reservation  of  benefices,  and  greatly 
limited  its  use  in  special  cases.  It  did  away  with  the  Pope's 
right  to  act  as  Ordinary,  and  insisted  that  no  ecclesiastical 
cases  should  be  appealed  to  Kome  without  first  having 
exhausted  the  lower  courts  of  jurisdiction.  It  abolished 
the  Annates^  with  some  exceptions  in  favour  of  the  present 
Pope.  It  also  made  some  attempts  to  provide  the  churches 
with  an  educated  ministry.  All  these  declarations  simply 
carried  out  the  proposals  of  the  Council  of  Basel ;  but  they 
had  an  important  influence  on  the  position  of  the  French 
clergy  towards  the  king.  The  Pragmatic  Sanction,  though 
issued  by  an  assembly  of  the  French  clergy,  was  neverthe- 
less a  royal  ordinance,  and  thereby  gave  the  king  indefinite 
rights  over  the  Church  within  France.  The  right  to  elect 
bishops  and  abbots  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  Chapters 
and  Convents,  but  the  king  and  nobles  were  expressly  per- 
mitted to  bring  forward  and  recommend  candidates,  and 
this  might  easily  be  extended  to  enforcing  the  election  of 
those  recommended.  Indefinite  rights  of  patronage  on 
the  part  of  the  king  and  of  the  nobles  over  benefices  in 
France  could  not  fail  to  be  the  result,  and  the  French 
Church  could  scarcely  avoid  assuming  the  appearance 
of  a  national  Church  controlled  by  the  king  as  the  head 
of  the  State.  The  abolition  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction 
was  always  a  bait  which  the  French  king  could  dangle 


FRANCS  25 

before  the  ejes  of  the  Pope,  and  the  promise  to  maintain 
the  Pragmatic  Sanction  was  always  a  bribe  to  secure  the 
support  of  the  clergy  and  the  Farlements  of  France. 

In  1516,  Francis  i.  and  Leo  x.  agreed  on  a  Concordat, 
the  practical  effect  of  which  was  that  the  king  received 
the  right  to  nominate  to  almost  all  the  higher  vacant 
benefices  in  France,  while  the  Popes  received  the  Annates. 
The  results  were  not  beneficial  to  the  Church.  It  left 
the  clergy  a  prey  to  papal  exactions,  and  it  compelled 
them  to  seek  for  promotion  through  subserviency  to  the 
king  and  the  court ;  but  it  had  the  effect  of  ranging  the 
monarch  on  the  side  of  the  Papacy  when  the  Peformation 
came. 
j  lb  can  scarcely  be  said  that  France  was  a  compact 
nation.  The  nobility  were  separated  from  the  middle  and 
lower  classes  by  the  fact  that  all  younger  sons  retained  the 
status  and  privileges  of  nobles.  In  ancient  times  they  had 
paid  no  share  of  the  taxes  raised  for  war,  on  the  ground 
that  they  rendered  personal  service,  and  the  privilege  of 
being  free  from  taxation  was  retained  long  after  the  ser- 
vices of  a  feudal  militia  had  disappeared.  The  nobility  in 
France  became  a  caste,  numerous,  poor  in  many  instances, 
and  too  proud  to  belittle  themselves  by  entering  any  of  the 
professions  or  engaging  in  commerce. 

Louis  XL  had  done  his  best  to  encourage  trade,  and 
had  introduced  the  silkworm  industry  into  France.  But 
as  the  whole  weight  of  taxation  fell  upon  the  rural 
districts,  the  middle  classes  took  refuge  in  the  towns,  and 
the  peasantry,  between  the  dues  they  had  to  pay  to  their 
lords  and  the  taxation  for  the  king,  were  in  an  oppressed 
condition.  Their  grievances  were  set  forth  in  the  petition 
they  addressed,  in  the  delusive  hope  of  amelioration,  to 
the  States-General  which  assembled  on  the  accession  of 
Charles  viii.  "  During  the  past  thirty-four  years,"  they 
say,  "troops  have  been  ever  passing  through  France  and 
living  on  the  poor  people.  When  the  poor  man  has 
managed,  by  the  sale  of  the  coat  on  his  back,  and  after 
hard  toil,  to  pay  his  taUle,  and  hopes  he  may  live  out  the 


26  THE    rOLTTICAT.    SITUATION 

year  on  the  little  he  lias  left,  then  come  fresh  troops  to 
his  cottage,  eating  him  up.  In  Normandy,  multitudes  have 
died  of  hunger.  From  want  of  cattle,  men  and  women 
have  to  yoke  themselves  to  the  carts ;  and  others,  fearing 
that  if  seen  in  the  daytime  they  will  be  seized  for  not 
having  paid  their  taille,  are  compelled  to  work  at  night 
The  king  should  have  pity  on  his  poor  people,  and  relieve 
them  from  the  said  tailles  and  charges."  This  was  in  1483, 
before  the  Italian  wars  had  further  increased  the  burdens 
which  the  poorest  class  of  the  community  had  to  pay. 

The  New  Learning  had  begun  to  filter  into  France  at  a 
comparatively  early  date.  In  1458  an  Italian  of  Greek 
descent  had  been  appointed  to  teach  Greek  by  the  Uni- 
versity of  Paris.  But  that  University  had  been  for  long 
the  centre  of  medijieval  scholastic  study,  and  it  was  not 
until  the  Italian  campaigns  of  Charles  viii,  who  was  in 
Italy  when  the  Renaissance  was  at  its  height,  that  France 
may  be  said  to  have  welcomed  the  Humanist  movement. 
A  Greek  Press  was  established  in  Paris  in  1507,  a  group 
of  French  Humanists  entered  upon  the  study  of  the  authors 
of  classical  antiquity,  and  the  new  learning  gradually  dis- 
placed the  old  scholastic  disciplines.  French  Humanists 
were  perhaps  the  earliest  to  make  a  special  study  of  Roman 
Law,  and  to  win  distinction  as  eminent  jurists.  Francis, 
like  Henry  viii.  of  England,  was  welcomed  on  his  accession 
as  a  Humanist  king.  Such  was  the  condition  of  France 
in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

§  5.  Spain. 

y  Spain  had  for  centuries  been  under  Mohammedan 
domination.  The  Moslems  had  overrun  almost  the  whole 
country,  and  throughout  its  most  fertile  provinces  the 
Christian  peasantry  lived  under  masters  of  an  alien  faith. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  century  the  only  independent 
Christian  principalities  were  small  states  lying  along  the 
southern  shore  of  the  Bay  of  Biscay  and  the  south-western 
slopes  of  the  Pyrenees.    The  Gothic  and  Vandal  chiefs  slowly 


SPAIN  27 

lecovered  ttie  northern  districts,  while  the  Moors  retained 
the  more  fertile  provinces  of  tlie  south.  The  political 
conditions  of  the  country  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 
century  inevitably  rellected  this  gradual  reconquest,  which 
had  brought  the  Christian  principalities  into  existence. 
In  1474,  w^ien  Isabella  (she  had  been  married  in  1469 
to  Ferdinand,  the  heir  to  Aragon)  succeeded  her  brother 
Henry  iv.  in  the  sovereignty  of  Castile,  Spain  was  divided 
into  five  separate  principalities  :  Castile,  with  Leon,  contain- 
ing 62  per  cent.;  Aragon,  with  Valentia  and  Catalonia, 
containing  1 5  per  cent. ;  Portugal,  containing  2  0  per  cent. ; 
Navarre,  containing  1  per  cent. ;  and  Granada,  the  only 
remaining  Moslem  State,  containing  2  per  cent,  of  the 
entire  surface  of  the  country. 

Castile  had  grown  by  almost  continuous  conquest  of 
lands  from  the  Moslems,  and  these  additions  were  acquired 
in  many  ways.  If  they  had  been  made  in  what  may  be 
termed  a  national  war,  the  lands  seized  became  the 
property  of  the  king,  and  could  be  retained  by  him  or 
granted  to  his  lords  spiritual  and  temporal  under  varying 
conditions.  In  some  cases  these  grants  made  the  possessors 
almost  independent  princes.  On  the  other  hand,  lands 
might  be  wrested  from  the  aliens  by  private  adventurers, 
and  in  such  cases  they  remained  in  possession  of  the  con- 
querors, who  formed  municipalities  which  had  the  right  of 
choosing  and  of  changing  their  overlords,  and  really  formed 
independent  communities.  Then  there  were,  as  was  natural 
in  a  period  of  continuous  warfare,  waste  lands.  These 
became  the  property  of  those  who  settled  on  them.  Lastly, 
there  were  the  dangerous  frontier  lands,  which  it  was  the 
policy  of  king  or  great  lord  who  owned  them  to  people 
with  settlers,  who  could  only  be  induced  to  undertake  the 
perilous  occupation  provided  they  received  charters  {fueros\ 
which  guaranteed  tlieir  practical  independence.  In  such  a 
condition  of  things  the  central  authority  could  not  be 
strong.  It  was  further  weakened  by  the  fact  that  the 
great  feudatories  claimed  to  have  both  civil  administration 
and  military,  rule  over  their  lands,  and  assimied  an  almost 


28  THE   POLITICAL   SITUATIOM 

regal  state.  Military  religious  orders  abounded,  and  were 
possessed  of  great  wealth.  Their  Grand  Masters,  in  virtue 
of  their  office,  were  independent  military  commanders,  and 
had  great  gifts,  in  the  shape  of  rich  commandries,  to  bestow 
on  their  followers.  Their  power  overshadowed  that  of  the 
sovereign.  The  great  ecclesiastics,  powerful  feudal  lords 
in  virtue  of  their  lands,  claimed  the  rights  of  civil  admini- 
stration and  military  rule  like  their  lay  compeers,  and, 
being  personally  protected  by  the  indefinable  sanctity  of 
the  priestly  character,  were  even  more  turbulent.  Almost 
universal  anarchy  had  prevailed  during  the  reigns  of  the 
two  weak  kings  who  preceded  Isabella  on  the  throne  of 
Castile,  and  the  crown  lands,  the  support  and  special  pro- 
tection of  the  sovereign,  had  been  alienated  by  lavish  gifts 
to  the  great  nobles.  This  was  the  situation  which  faced 
the  young  queen  when  she  came  into  her  inheritance.  It 
was  aggravated  by  a  rebellion  on  behalf  of  Juanna,  the 
illegitimate  daughter  of  Henry  iv.  The  rebellion  was 
successfully  crushed.  The  queen  and  her  consort,  who  was 
not  yet  in  possession  of  the  throne  of  Aragon,  then  tried 
to  give  the  land  security.  The  previous  anarchy  had  pro- 
duced its  usual  results.  The  country  was  infested  with 
bands  of  brigands,  and  life  was  not  safe  outside  the  walls 
of  the  towns.  Isabella  instituted,  or  rather  revived,  the 
Holy  Brotherhood  {Hermandad),  a  force  of  cavalry  raised 
by  the  whole  country  (each  group  of  one  hundred  houses 
was  bound  to  provide  one  horseman).  It  was  an  army  of 
mounted  police.  It  had  its  own  judges,  who  tried  criminals 
on  the  scene  of  their  crimes,  and  those  convicted  were 
punished  by  the  troops  according  to  the  sentences  pro- 
nounced. Its  avowed  objects  were  to  put  down  all  crimes 
of  violence  committed  outside  the  cities,  and  to  hunt 
criminals  who  had  fled  from  the  towns*  justice.  Its  judges 
superseded  the  justiciary  powers  of  the  nobles,  who  pro- 
tested in  vain.  The  Brotherhood  did  its  work  very  effectively, 
and  the  towns  and  the  common  people  rallied  round  the 
monarchy  which  had  given  them  safety  for  limb  and 
property. 


SPAIN  29 

The  sovereigns  next  attacked  the  position  of  the 
nobles,  whose  mutual  feuds  rendered  them  a  compara- 
tively easy  foe  to  rulers  who  had  proved  their  strength 
of  government.  The  royal  domains,  which  had  been 
alienated  during  the  previous  reign,  were  restored  to  the 
sovereign,  and  many  of  the  most  abused  privileges  of  the 
nobility  were  curtailed. 

One  by  one  the  Grand  Masterships  of  the  Crusading 
Orders  were  centred  in  the  person  of  the  Crown,  the  Pope 
acquiescing  and  granting  investiture.  The  Church  was 
stripped  of  some  of  its  superfluous  wealth,  and  the  civil 
powers  of  the  higher  ecclesiastics  were  abolished  or  curtailed. 
In  the  end  it  may  be  said  that  the  Spanish  clergy  were 
made  almost  as  subservient  to  the  sovereign  as  were  those 
of  France. 

The  pacification  and  consolidation  of  Castile  was  fol- 
I  lowed  by  the  conquest  of  Granada.  The  Holy  Brother- 
hood served  the  purpose  of  a  standing  army,  internal  feuds 
among  the  Moors  aided  the  Christians,  and  after  a  pro- 
tracted struggle  (1481-1492)  the  city  of  Granada  was 
taken,  and  the  Moorish  rule  in  the  Peninsula  ceased.  All 
Spain,  save  Portugal  and  Navarre  (seized  by  Ferdinand  in 
1512),  was  thus  united  under  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  the 
Catholic  Sovereigns  as  they  came  to  be  called,  and  the 
civil  unity  increased  the  desire  for  religious  uniformity. 
The  Jews  in  Spain  were  numerous,  wealthy,  and  influential. 
They  had  intermarried  with  many  noble  families,  and 
almost  controlled  the  finance  of  the  country.  It  was 
resolved  to  compel  them  to  become  Christians,  by  force  if 
necessary.  In  1478  a  Bull  was  obtained  from  Pope 
Sixtus  IV.  establishing  the  Inquisition  in  Spain,  it  being 
provided  that  the  inquisitors  were  to  be  appointed  by  the 
sovereign.  The  Holy  Office  in  this  way  became  an  instru- 
ment for  establishing  a  civil  despotism,  as  well  as  a  means 
for  repressing  heresy.  It  did  its  work  with  a  ruthless 
severity  hitherto  unexampled.  Sixtus  Limself  and  some 
of  his  successors,  moved  by  rspeated  complaints,  endea- 
voured i'^  restrain    ts  ^avage  energy ;  but  the  Inquisition 


30  THE    POLITICAL    SITUATION 

was  too  useful  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  a  despotic; 
sovereign,  and  the  Popes  were  forced  to  allow  its  proceed- 
ings, and  to  refuse  all  appeals  to  Kome  against  its  sen- 
tences. It  was  put  in  use  against  the  Moorish  subjects 
of  the  Catholic  kings,  notwithstanding  the  terms  of  the 
capitulation  of  Granada,  which  provided  for  the  exercise  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty.  The  result  was  that,  in  spite  of 
fierce  rebellions,  all  the  Moors,  save  small  groups  of 
families  under  the  special  protection  of  the  Crown,  had 
become  nominal  Christians  by  1502,  although  almost  a 
century  had  to  pass  before  the  Inquisition  had  rooted  out 
the  last  traces  of  the  Moslem  faith  in  the  Spanish  Peninsula. 
The  death  of  Isabella  in  1504  roughly  dates  a  formid- 
able rising  against  this  process  of  repression  and  consolida- 
tion. The  severities  of  the  Inquisition,  the  insistence  of 
Ferdinand  to  govern  personally  the  lands  of  his  deceased 
wife,  and  many  local  causes  led  to  widespread  conspiracies 
and  revolts  against  his  rule.  The  years  between  1504  and 
1522  were  a  period  of  revolutions  and  of  lawlessness  which 
was  ended  when  Charles  v.,  the  grandson  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella,  overcame  all  resistance  and  inaugurated  a  reign  of 
personal  despotism  which  long  distinguished  the  kingdom 
of  Spain.  Spanish  troubles  had  something  to  do  with  pre- 
venting Charles  from  putting  into  execution  in  Germany, 
as  he  wished  to  do,  the  ban  issued  at  Worms  against 
Martin  Luther. 


§  6.  Germany  and  Italy, 

Germany  and  Italy,  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  had  made  almost  no  progress  in  becoming  united 
and  compact  nations.  The  process  of  national  consolida- 
tion, which  was  a  feature  of  the  times,  displayed  itself  in 
these  lands  in  the  creation  of  compact  principalities  rather 
than  in  a  great  and  effective  national  movement  under  one 
sovereign  power.  It  is  a  commonplace  of  history  to  say 
that  the  main  reason  for  this  was  the  presence  within  these 
two  lands  of  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor,  the  twin  powers 


GERMANY    AND   ITALY  81 

of  the  earlier  mediaeval  ideal  of  a  dual  government,  at  onco 
civil  and  ecclesiastical.  Machiavelli  expressed  the  common 
idea  in  his  clear  and  strenuous  fashion.  He  says  that  the 
Italians  owe  it  to  Eome  that  they  are  divided  into  factions 
and  not  united  as  were  Spain  and  France.  The  Pope,  ho 
explains,  who  claimed  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual  juris- 
diction, thougli  not  strong  enough  to  rule  all  Italy  by 
himself,  was  powerful  enough  to  prevent  any  other  Italian 
dynasty  from  taking  his  place.  Whenever  he  saw  any 
Italian  power  growing  strong  enough  to  have  a  future 
before  it,  he  invited  the  aid  of  some  foreign  potentate,  thus 
making  Italy  a  prey  to  continual  invasions.  The  shadowy 
lordship  of  the  Pope  was  sufficient,  in  the  opinion  of 
Machiavelli,  to  prevent  any  real  lordship  under  a  native 
dynasty  within  the  Italian  peninsula.  In  Germany  there 
was  a  similar  impotency.  The  German  king  was  the 
Emperor,  the  mediaeval  head  of  the  Holy  Eomau  Empire, 
the  "  king  of  the  Eomans."  Some  idea  of  what  underlay 
the  thought  and  its  expression  may  be  had  when  one  reads 
across  Albert  Diirer's  portrait  of  Maximilian,  "  Imperator 
Caesar  Divus  Maximilianus  Pius  Felix  Augustus,"  just  as  if 
he  had  been  Trajan  or  Constantino.  The  phrase  carries 
us  back  to  the  times  when  the  Teutonic  tribes  swept  down 
on  the  Eoman  possessions  in  Western  Europe  and  took 
possession  of  them.  They  were  barbarians  with  an  un- 
alterable reverence  for  the  wider  civilisation  of  the  great 
Empire  which  they  had  conquered.  They  crept  into  the 
shell  of  the  great  Empire  and  tried  to  assimilate  its  juris- 
prudence and  its  religion.  Hence  it  came  to  pass,  in  the 
earlier  Middle  Ages,  as  Mr.  Freeman  says,  "  The  two  great 
powers  in  Western  Europe  were  the  Church  and  the 
Empire,  and  the  centre  of  each,  in  imagination  at  least, 
was  Eome.  Both  of  these  went  on  through  the  settlements 
of  the  German  nations,  and  both  in  a  manner  drew  new 
powers  from  the  change  of  things.  Men  believed  more 
than  ever  that  Eome  was  the  lawful  and  natural  centre  of 
the  world.  For  it  was  held  tliat  there  were  of  divine 
right  two  Vicars  of  God  upon  earth,  the  Eoman  Emperoj*, 


32  THE   POLITICAL   SITUATION 

His  Vicar  in  temporal  things,  and  the  Roman  Bishop,  His 
Vicar  in  spiritual  things.  This  belief  did  not  interfere 
with  the  existence  either  of  separate  commonwealths, 
principalities,  or  of  national  Churches.  But  it  was  held  that 
the  Koman  Emperor,  who  was  the  Lord  of  the  World,  was 
of  right  the  head  of  all  temporal  States,  and  the  Eoman 
Bishop,  the  Pope,  was  the  head  of  all  the  Churches."  This 
idea  was  a  devout  imagination,  and  was  never  actually  and 
fully  expressed  in  fact.  No  Eastern  nation  or  Church  ever 
agreed  with  it ;  and  the  temporal  lordship  of  the  Emperors 
was  never  completely  acknowledged  even  in  the  West 
Still  it  ruled  in  men's  minds  with  all  the  force  of  an  ideal. 
As  the  modern  nations  of  Europe  came  gradually  into 
being,  the  real  headship  of  the  Emperor  became  more  and 
more  shadowy.  But  both  headships  could  prevent  the 
national  consolidation  of  the  countries,  Germany  and  Italy, 
in  which  the  possessors  dwelt.  All  this  is,  as  has  been 
said,  a  commonplace  of  history,  and,  like  all  commonplaces, 
it  contains  a  great  deal  of  truth.  Still  it  may  be  questioned 
whether  the  mediaeval  idea  was  solely  responsible  for  the 
disintegration  of  either  Germany  or  Italy  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  A  careful  study  of  the  conditions  of  things  in 
both  countries  makes  us  see  that  many  causes  were  at 
work  besides  the  mediaeval  idea — conditions  geographical, 
social,  and  historical.  Whatever  the  causes,  the  disinte- 
gration of  these  two  lands  was  in  marked  contrast  to  the 
consolidation  of  the  three  other  nations. 


§  7.  Italy, 

In  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  Italy  contained  a 
very  great  number  of  petty  principalities  and  five  States 
which  might  be  called  the  great  powers  of  Italy — Venice, 
Milan,  and  Florence  in  the  north,  Naples  in  the  south, 
and  the  States  of  the  Church  in  the  centre.  Peace  was 
kept  by  a  delicate  and  highly  artificial  balance  of  powers. 
Venice  was  a  commercial  republic,  ruled  by  an  oligarchy 
of  nobles.     The  city  in  the  lagoons  had  been  founded  by 


ITALY  33 

trembling  fugitives  fleeinj  before  Attila's  Ht_5,  and  was 
more  than  a  thousand  years  old.  It  had  large  territories 
on  the  mainland  of  Italy,  and  colonies  extending  down  the 
east  coast  of  the  Adriatic  and  among  the  Greek  islands. 
It  had  the  largest  revenue  of  all  the  Italian  States,  but  its 
expenses  were  also  much  the  heaviest.  Milan  came  next 
in  wealth,  with  its  yearly  income  of  over  700,000  ducats. 
At  the  close  of  the  century  it  was  in  the  possession  of  the 
Sforza  family,  whose  founder  had  been  born  a  ploughman, 
and  had  risen  to  be  a  formidable  commander  of  mercenary 
soldiers.  It  was  claimed  by  Maximilian  as  a  fief  of  the 
Empire,  and  by  the  Kings  of  France  as  a  heritage  of  the 
Dukes  of  Orleans.  The  disputed  heritage  was  one  of 
the  causes  of  the  invasion  of  Italy  by  Charles  viii. 
Florence,  the  most  cultured  city  in  Italy,  was,  like  Venice, 
a  commercial  republic ;  but  it  was  a  democratic  republic, 
wherein  one  family,  the  Medici,  had  usurped  almost  de- 
spotic power  while  preserving  all  the  external  marks  of 
republican  rule. 

Naples  was  the  portion  of  Italy  where  the  feudal 
system  of  the  Middle  Ages  had  lingered  longest.  The 
old  kingdom  of  the  Two  Sicilies  (Naples  and  Sicily)  had, 
since  1458,  been  divided,  and  Sicily  had  been  politically 
separated  from  the  mainland.  The  island  belonged  to  the 
King  of  Aragon ;  while  the  mainland  had  for  its  ruler 
the  illegitimate  son  of  Alphonso  of  Aragon,  Ferdinand, 
or  Ferrante,  who  proved  a  despotic  and  masterful  ruler. 
He  had  crushed  his  semi-independent  feudal  barons,  had 
brought  the  towns  under  his  despotic  rule,  and  was  able 
bo  hand  over  a  compact  kingdom  to  his  son  Alphonso  in 
1494. 

The  feature,  however,  in  the  political  condition  of  Italy 
which  illustrated  best  the  general  tendency  of  the  age 
towards  coalescence,  was  the  growth  of  the  States  of  the 
Church.  The  dominions  which  were  directly  under  the 
temporal  power  of  the  Pope  had  been  the  most  disorganised 
in  all  Italy.  The  vassal  barons  had  been  turbulently  inde- 
pendent, and  the  Popes  had  little  power  even  within  the 
3* 


34  THE   POLITICAL  SITUATION 

city  of  Eome.  The  helplessness  of  the  Popes  to  control 
their  vassals  perhaps  reached  its  lowest  stage  in  the  days 
of  Innocent  vilL  His  successors  Alexander  VL  (Eodrigo 
Borgia,  1492-1503),  Julius  n.  (Cardinal  della  Eovere, 
1503-1513),  and  Leo  x.  (Giovanni  de  Medici,  1513- 
1521),  strove  to  create,  and  partly  succeeded  in  forming,  a 
strong  central  dominion,  the  States  of  the  Church.  The 
troubled  times  of  the  French  invasions,  and  the  continual 
warfare  among  the  more  powerful  States  of  Italy,  furnished 
them  with  the  occasion.  They  pursued  their  policy  with  a 
craft  which  brushed  aside  all  moral  obligations,  and  with 
a  ruthlessness  which  hesitated  at  no  amount  of  bloodshed. 
In  their  hands  the  Papacy  appeared  to  be  a  merely  tem- 
poral power,  and  was  treated  as  such  by  contemporary 
politicians.  It  was  one  of  the  political  States  of  Italy,  and 
the  Popes  were  distinguished  from  their  contemporary 
Italian  rulers  only  by  the  facts  that  their  spiritual  position 
enabled  them  to  exercise  a  European  influence  which  the 
others  could  not  aspire  to,  and  that  their  sacred  character 
placed  them  above  the  obligations  of  ordinary  morality  in 
the  matter  of  keeping  solemn  promises  and  maintaining 
treaty  obligations  made  binding  by  the  most  sacred  oaths. 
In  one  sense  their  aim  was  patriotic.  They  were  Itahan 
princes  whose  aim  was  to  create  a  strong  Italian  central 
power  which  might  be  able  to  maintain  the  independence 
of  Italy  against  the  foreigner;  and  in  this  they  were 
partially  successful,  whatever  judgment  may  require  to  be 
passed  on  the  means  taken  to  attain  their  end.  But  the 
actions  of  the  Italian  prince  placed  the  spiritual  Head  of 
the  Church  outside  all  those  influences,  intellectual,  artistic, 
and  religious  (the  revival  under  Savonarola  in  Florence), 
which  were  working  in  Italy  for  the  regeneration  of 
European  society.  The  Popes  of  the  Eenaissance  set  the 
example,  only  too  faithfully  followed  by  almost  every 
prince  of  the  age,  of  believing  that  political  far  outweighed 
all  moral  and  religious  motivea 


GERMANY  35 

§  8.  Germany, 

Germany,  or  the  Empire,  as  it  was  called,  included, 
in  the  days  of  the  Eeformation,  the  Low  Countries  in 
the  north-west  and  a  large  part  of  what  are  now  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  lands  in  the  east.  It  was  in  a  strange  condi- 
tion. On  the  one  hand  a  strong  popular  sentiment  for 
unity  had  arisen  in  all  the  German-speaking  portions,  and 
on  the  other  the  country  was  cut  into  sections  and  slices, 
and  was  more  hopelessly  divided  than  was  Italy  itself. 
I  Nominally  the  Empire  was  ruled  over  by  one  supreme 
lord,  with  a  great  feudal  assembly,  the  Diet,  under  him. 

The  Empire  was  elective,  though  for  generations  the 
rulers  chosen  had  always  been  the  heads  of  the  House  ot 
Hapsburg,  and  since  1356  the  election  had  been  in  the 
hands  of  seven  prince-electors — three  on  the  Elbe  and 
four  on  the  Khine.  On  the  Elbe  were  the  King  of 
Bohemia,  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  and  the  Elector  of 
Brandenburg ;  on  the  Ehine,  the  Count  Palatine  of  the 
Rhine  and  the  Archbishops  of  Mainz,  Trier,  and  Koln. 

This  Empire,  nominally  one,  and  full  of  the  strongest 
sentiments  of  unity,  was  hopelessly  divided,  and — for  this 
was  the  peculiarity  of  the  situation — all  the  elements 
making  for  peaceful  government,  which  in  countries  like 
France  or. England  supported  the  central  power,  were  on 
the  side  of  disunion. 

A  glance  at  the  map  of  Germany  in  the  times  of  the 
Reformation  shows  an  astonishing  multiplicity  of  separate 
principalities,  ecclesiastical  and  secular,  all  the  more  be- 
wildering that  most  of  them  appeared  to  be  compot^d  of 
patches  lying  separate  from  each  other.  Almost  every 
ruling  prince  had  to  cross  some  neighbour's  land  to  visit 
the  outlying  portions  of  his  dominions.  It  must  also  be 
remembered  that  the  divisions  which  can  be  represented 
on  a  map  but  faintly  express  the  real  state  of  things.  The 
territories  of  the  imperial  cities — the  lands  outside  the 
walls  ruled  by  the  civic  fathers — were  for  the  most  part 
too  small  to  figure  on  any  map,  and  for  the  same  reason 


35  THE  POLITICAL   SITUATION 

the  tiny  principalities  of  the  hordes  of  free  nobles  are  also 
invisible.  So  we  have  to  imagine  all  those  little  mediaeval 
republics  and  those  infinitesimal  kingdoms  camped  on  the 
territories  of  the  great  princes,  and  taking  from  them  even 
the  small  amount  of  unity  which  the  map  shows. 

The  greater  feudal  States,  Electoral  and  Ducal  Saxony, 
Brandenburg,  Bavaria,  the  Palatinate,  Hesse,  and  many 
others,  had  meetings  of  their  own  Estates, — Councils  of 
subservient  nobles  and  lawyers, — their  own  Supreme  Courts 
of  Justice,  from  which  there  was  no  appeal,  their  own  fiscal 
system,  their  own  finance  and  coinage,  and  largely  con- 
trolled their  clergy  and  their  relations  to  powers  outside 
Germany.  Their  princes,  hampered  as  they  were  by  the 
great  Churchmen,  thwarted  continually  by  the  town  re- 
publics, defied  by  the  free  nobles,  were  nevertheless  actual 
kings,  and  profited  by  the  centralising  tendencies  of  the 
times.  They  alone  in  Germany  represented  settled  central 
government,  and  attracted  to  themselves  the  smaller  units 
lying  outside  and  around  them. 

Yet  with  all  these  divisions,  having  their  roots  deep 
down  in  the  past,  there  was  pervading  all  classes  of 
society,  from  princes  to  peasants,  the  sentiment  of  a  united 
Germany,  and  no  lack  of  schemes  to  convert  the  feeling 
into  fact.  The  earliest  practical  attempts  began  with  the 
union  of  German  Churchmen  at  Constance  and  the  scheme 
for  a  National  Church  of  Germany;  and  the  dream  of 
ecclesiastical  unity  brought  in  its  train  the  aspiration  after 
political  oneness. 

The  practical  means  proposed  to  create  a  German 
national  unity  over  lands  which  stretched  from  the  Straits 
of  Dover  to  the  Vistula,  and  from  the  Baltic  to  the 
Adriatic,  were  the  proclamation  of  a  universal  Land's 
Peace,  forbidding  all  internecine  war  between  Germans; 
the  establishment  of  a  Supreme  Court  of  Justice  to  decide 
quarrels  within  the  Empire ;  a  common  coinage,  and  a  com- 
mon Customs  Union.  To  bind  all  more  firmly  together 
there  was  needed  a  Common  Council  or  governing  body, 
which,  under  the  Emperor,  should  determine  the  Homo 


GERMANY  37 

and  Foreign  Policy  of  tlie  Em])irc.  The  only  authorities 
which  conld  create  a  goveinniental  unity  of  this  kind  were 
the  Emperor  on  the  one  hand  and  the  great  princes  on  the 
other,  and  the  two  needed  to  be  one  in  mutual  confidence 
and  in  intention.  But  that  is  wliat  never  happened,  and 
all  through  the  reign  of  Maximilian  and  in  the  early  years 
of  Charles  we  find  two  different  conceptions  of  what  the 
central  government  ought  to  be — the  one  oligarchic  and 
the  other  autocratic.  The  princes  were  resolved  to  keep 
their  independence,  and  their  plans  for  unity  always  im- 
plied a  governing  oligarchy  with  serious  restraint  placed 
on  the  power  of  the  Emperor  ;  while  the  Emperors,  who 
would  never  submit  to  be  controlled  by  an  oligarchy  of 
German  princes,  and  who  found  that  they  could  not  carry 
out  their  schemes  for  an  autocratic  unity,  were  at  least  able 
to  wreck  any  other. 

The  German  princes  have  been  accused  of  preferring 
the  security  and  enlargement  of  their  dynastic  possessions 
to  the  unity  of  the  Empire,  but  it  can  be  replied  that  in 
doing  so  they  only  followed  the  example  set  them  by  their 
Emperors.  Frederick  in.,  Maximilian,  and  Charles  v.  in- 
variably neglected  imperial  interests  when  they  clashed 
with  the  welfare  of  the  family  possessions  of  the  House  of 
Hapsburg.  When  Maximilian  inherited  the  imperial  Bur- 
gun  dian  lands,  a  fief  of  the  Empire,  through  his  marriage 
with  Mary,  the  heiress  of  Charles  the  Bold,  he  treated  the 
inheritance  as  part  of  the  family  estates  of  his  House. 
The  Tyrol  was  absorbed  by  the  House  of  Hapsburg  when 
the  Swabian  League  prevented  Bavaria  seizing  it  (1487). 
The  same  fate  fell  on  the  Duchy  of  Austria  when  Vienna 
was  recovered,  and  on  Hungary  and  Bohemia ;  and  when 
Charles  v.  got  hold  of  "Wiirtemberg  on  the  outlawry  of 
Duke  Ulrich,  it,  too,  was  detached  from  the  Empire  and 
absorbed  into  the  family  possessions  of  the  Hapsburgs. 
There  was,  in  short,  a  persistent  policy  pursued  by  three 
successive  Emperors,  of  despoiling  the  Empire  in  order  to 
increase  the  family  possessions  of  the  House  to  which  they 
belonged, 


38  THE  POLITICAL   SITUATION 

The  last  attempt  to  give  a  constitutional  unity  to  the 
German  Empire  was  made  at  the  Diet  of  Worms  (1521) 
— the  Diet  before  which  Luther  appeared.  There  the 
Emperor,  Charles  v.,  agreed  to  accept  a  Reichsregiment, 
which  was  in  all  essential  points,  though  differing  in  some 
details,  the  same  as  his  grandfather  Maximilian  had  pro- 
posed to  the  Diet  of  1495.  The  Central  Council  was 
composed  of  a  President  and  four  members  appointed  by 
the  Emperor,  six  Electors  (the  King  of  Bohemia  being  ex- 
cluded), who  might  sit  in  person  or  by  deputies,  and  twelve 
members  appointed  by  the  rest  of  the  Estates.  The  cities 
were  not  represented.  This  ReicJisregiment  was  to  govern 
all  German  lands,  including  Austria  and  the  Netherlands, 
but  excluding  Bohemia.  Switzerland,  hitherto  nominally 
within  the  Empire,  formally  withdrew  and  ceased  to  form 
part  of  Germany.  The  central  government  needed  funds  to 
carry  on  its  work,  and  especially  to  provide  an  army  to 
enforce  its  decisions ;  and  various  schemes  for  raising  the 
money  required  were  discussed  at  its  earlier  meetings.  It 
was  resolved  at  last  to  raise  the  necessary  funds  by  im- 
posing a  tax  of  four  per  cent,  on  all  imports  and  exports, 
and  to  establish  custom-houses  on  all  the  frontiers.  The 
practical  effect  of  this  was  to  lay  the  whole  burden  of 
taxation  upon  the  mercantile  classes,  or,  in  other  words,  to 
make  the  cities,  who  were  not  represented  in  the  Eeichs- 
regiment,  pay  for  the  whole  of  the  central  government. 
This  Beichsregiment  was  to  be  simply  a  board  of  advice, 
without  any  decisive  control  so  long  as  the  Emperor  was  in 
Germany.  When  he  was  absent  from  the  country  it  had 
an  independent  power  of  government.  But  all  important 
decisions  had  to  be  confirmed  by  the  absent  Emperor,  who, 
for  his  part,  promised  to  form  no  foreign  leagues  involving 
Germany  without  the  consent  of  the  Council. 

As  soon  as  the  Reichsregiment  had  settled  its  scheme 
of  taxation,  the  cities  on  which  it  was  proposed  to  lay  the 
whole  burden  of  providing  the  funds  required  very  natur- 
ally objected.  They  met  by  representatives  at  Speyer 
(1523),  and  sent  delegates  to  Spain,  to  Valladolid,  where 


GERMANY  89 

Charles  happened  to  be,  to  protest  against  the  scheme  of 
taxation.  They  were  supported  by  the  great  German 
/capitalists.  The  Emperor  received  them  graciously,  and 
promised  to  take  the  government  into  his  own  hands.  In 
this  way  the  last  attempt  to  give  a  governmental  unity  to 
Germany  was  destroyed  by  the  joint  action  of  the  Emperor 
and  of  the  cities.  It  is  unquestionable  that  the  Eeformation 
under  Luther  did  seriously  assist  in  the  disintegration  of 
Germany,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  a  movement 
cannot  become  national  where  there  is  no  nation,  and  that 
German  nationality  had  been  hopelessly  destroyed  just  at 
the  time  when  it  was  most  needed  to  unify  and  moderate 
the  great  religious  impulses  which  were  throbbing  in  the 
hearts  of  its  citizens. 

Maximilian  had  been  elected  King  of  the  Komans  in 
1486,  and  had  succeeded  to  the  Empire  on  the  death  of 
his  father,  Frederick  m.,  in  1493.  His  was  a  strongly 
fascinating  personality — a  man  full  of  enthusiasms,  never 
lacking  in  ideas,  but  singularly  destitute  of  the  patient 
practical  power  to  make  them  workable.  He  may  almost 
be  called  a  type  of  that  Germany  over  which  he  was  called 
to  rule.  No  man  was  fuller  of  the  longing  for  German 
unity  as  an  ideal ;  no  man  did  more  to  perpetuate  the  very 
real  divisions  of  the  land. 

He  was  the  patron  of  German  learning  and  of  German 
art,  and  won  the  praises  of  the  German  Humanists:  no 
ruler  was  more  celebrated  in  contemporary  song.  He  pro- 
tected and  supported  the  German  towns,  encouraged  their 
industries,  and  fostered  their  culture.  In  almost  every- 
thing ideal  he  stood  for  German  nationality  and  unity. 
He  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  all  those  intellectual  and 
artistic  forces  from  which  spread  the  thought  of  a  united 
Germany  for  the  Germans.  On  the  other  hand,  his  one 
persistent  practical  policy,  and  the  only  one  in  which  he 
was  almost  uniformly  successful,  was  to  unify  and  con- 
solidate the  family  possessions  of  the  House  of  Hapsburg. 
In  this  policy  he  was  the  leader  of  those  who  broke  up 
Germany  into  an  aggregate  of  separate  and  independent 


40  THE    POLITICAL   SITUATION 

principalities.  The  greater  German  princes  followed  his 
example,  and  did  their  best  to  transform  themselves  into 
the  civilised   rulers  of   modern   States. 

Maximilian  died  somewhat  unexpectedly  on  January 
12th,  1519,  and  five  months  were  spent  in  intrigues 
by  the  partisans  of  Francis  of  France  and  young  Charles, 
King  of  Spain,  the  grandson  of  Maximilian.  The  French 
party  believed  that  they  had  secured  by  bribery  a  majority 
of  the  Electors ;  and  when  this  was  whispered  about,  the 
popular  feeling  in  favour  of  Charles,  on  account  of  his 
German  blood,  soon  began  to  manifest  itself.  It  was 
naturally  strongest  in  the  Ehine  provinces.  Papal  dele- 
gates could  not  get  the  Ehine  skippers  to  hire  boats  to 
them  for  their  journey,  as  it  was  believed  that  the  Pope 
favoured  the  French  king.  The  Imperial  Cities  accused 
Francis  of  fomenting  internecine  war  in  Germany,  and 
displayed  their  hatred  of  his  candidature.  The  very 
Landskuechten  clamoured  for  the  grandson  of  their 
"Father"  Maximilian.  The  eyes  of  all  Germany  were 
turned  anxiously  enough  to  the  venerable  town  of 
Frankfurt-on-the-Main,  where,  according  to  ancient  usage, 
the  Electors  met  to  select  the  ruler  of  the  Holy  Koman 
Empire.  On  the  28th  of  June  (1519)  the  alarm  bell 
of  the  town  gave  the  signal,  and  the  Electors  assembled 
in  their  scarlet  robes  of  State  in  the  dim  little  chapel  of 
St.  Bartholomew,  where  the  conclave  was  always  held. 
The  manifestation  of  popular  feeling  had  done  its  work. 
Charles  was  unanimously  chosen,  and  all  Germany  rejoiced, 
— the  good  burghers  of  Frankfurt  declaring  that  if  the 
Electors  had  chosen  Francis  they  would  have  been  "  playing 
with  death." 

It  was  a  wave  of  national  excitement,  the  desire  for 
a  German  ruler,  that  had  brought  about  the  unanimous 
election ;  and  never  were  a  people  more  mistaken  and,  in 
the  end,  disappointed.  Charles  was  the  heir  of  the  House 
of  Hapsburg,  the  grandson  of  Maximilian,  his  veins  full 
of  German  blood.  But  he  was  no  German.  Maximilian 
was   the  last  of  the    real  German   Hapsburgs.      History 


GERMANY  41 

scarcely  shows  another  instance  where  the  mother's  blood 
has  so  completely  changed  the  character  of  a  race.  Charles 
was  his  mother's  son,  and  her  Spanish  characteristics 
showed  themselves  in  him  in  greater  strength  as  the  years 
went  on.  When  he  abdicated,  he  retired  to  end  his  days 
in  a  Spanish  convent.  It  was  the  Spaniard,  not  the 
German,  who  faced  Luther  at  Worm& 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE   RENAISSANCE.* 

5  1.   The  Transition  from  the  Mediceval  to  the  Modem 
World, 

The  movement  called  the  Eenaissance,  in  its  widest  extent, 
may  be  described  as  the  transition  from  the  mediaeval  to 
the  modern  world.  All  our  present  conceptions  of  life 
and  thought  find  their  roots  within  this  period. 

It  saw  the  beginnings  of  modern  science  and  the 
application  of  true  scientific  methods  to  the  investigation 
of  nature.      It  witnessed  the  astronomical  discoveries  of 


*  Sources  :  Boccaccio,  Lettere  edite  e  inedite,  tradotte  et  commentaie  con 
nuovi  documenti  da  Corrazzini  (Florence,  1877) ;  Frandsci  Petrarehce^ 
EpvstolcB  familiares  et  varice  (Florence,  1859) ;  Cusani,  Opera  (Basel,  1565) ; 
Booking,  Ulrici  Hutteni  Opera,  5  vols.  (Leipzig,  1871);  Supplement 
containing  Epistoloe  Obscurorum  Kirorum,  2  vols.  (Leipzig,  1864,  1869) ; 
Gillert,  Der  Brief wechsel  des  Konrad  Mutianus  (Halle,  1890) ;  Beuchlin, 
Ve  Verho  Mirifieo  (1552). 

Later  Books  :  Jacob  Burckhardt,  The  Civilisation  of  the  Period  of  the 
Eenaissance  (Eng.  trans.,  London,  1892) ;  Geiger,  Humanismus  und 
Eenaissance  in  Italien  und  Deutschland  (Berlin,  1882)  ;  Michelet,  Eistoire 
de  France,  vol.  vii.,  Renaissance  (Paris,  1855) ;  Lavisse,  Eistoire  de  France^ 
V,  L  p.  287  tf.  ;  Symonds,  The  Renaissance  in  Italy  (London,  1877) ; 
H.  Hallam,  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  Europe  during  the  Fifteenth, 
Sixteenth,  and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  6th  ed.  (London,  1860);  Kampt- 
schulte,  Die  Universitat  Erfurt  in  ihrem  Verhdltniss  zu  dem  Eumanismus 
und  der  Reformation,  2  vols.  (Trier,  1856,  1860) ;  Krause,  Eelius  Eobanus 
Eessus,  sein  Leben  und  seine  Werke,  2  vols.  (Gotha,  1879) ;  Geiger,  Johawn 
Rev4:hlin  (Leipzig,  1871) ;  Binder,  Charitas  PirJcheimer,  Aebtissin  von 
St.  Clara  zu  Nurnherg  (Freiburg  i.  B.,  1893) ;  Hbfler,  Denkwurdigkeiten 
der  Charitas  Pirkheimer  {Quellensamml.  z.  frank.  Gesch.  iv.,  1858) ;  Both, 
WUlihaZd  Pirkheimer  (Halle,  1874);  Scott,  Albert  Durer,  his  Life  and 
Works  (London,  1869);  Thausing,  Diirer's  Priefe,  TagebUchett  EnfM 
(Yienius  1884) ;  Cambridge  Modem  Eistory,  i.  xvi,  xvii  j  n.  i. 

42 


A   PERIOD   OF  TnANStTlON 


43 


Copernicus  and  Galileo,  the  foundation  of  anatomy  under 
Vessalius. 

It  was  the  age  of  geographical  explorations.  The 
discoveries  of  the  telescope,  the  mariner's  compass,  and 
gunpowder  gave  men  mastery  over  previously  unknown 
natural  forces,  and  multiplied  their  powers,  their  daring, 
and  their  capacities  for  adventure.  When  these  geogra- 
phical discoveries  had  made  a  world-trade  a  possible  thing, 
there  began  that  change  from  mediaeval  to  modern  methods 
in  trade  and  commerce  which  lasted  from  the  close  of 
the  fourteenth  to  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  when  the  modern  commercial  conditions  were 
thoroughly  established.  The  transition  period  was  marked 
by  the  widening  area  of  trade,  which  was  no  longer 
restricted  to  the  Mediterranean,  the  Black  and  the  North 
Seas,  to  the  Baltic,  and  to  the  east  coasts  of  Africa.  The 
rigid  groups  of  artisans  and  traders — the  guild  system  of 
the  Middle  Ages — began  to  dissolve,  and  to  leave  freer 
space  for  individual  and  new  corporate  effort.  Prices 
were  gradually  freed  from  official  regulation,  and  became 
subject  to  the  natural  effects  of  bargaining.  Adventure 
companies  were  started  to  share  in  the  world-trade,  and  a 
beginning  was  made  of  dealing  on  commissions.  All  these 
changes  belong  to  the  period  of  transition  between  the 
mediaeval  and  the  modern  world. 

In  the  art  of  governing  men  the  Eenaissance  was  the  age 
of  political  concentration.  In  two  realms — Germany  and 
Italy — the  mediaeval  conceptions  of  Emperor  and  Pope, 
world-king  and  world-priest,  were  still  strong  enough  to 
prevent  the  union  of  national  forces  under  one  political 
head ;  but  there,  also,  the  principle  of  coalescence  may  be 
found  in  partial  operation, — in  Germany  in  the  formation 
of  great  independent  principalities,  and  in  Italy  in  the 
growth  of  the  States  of  the  Church, — and  its  partial  failure 
subjected  both  nationalities  to  foreign  oppression.  Every- 
where there  was  the  attempt  to  assert  the  claims  of  the 
secular  powers  to  emancipate  themselves  from  clerical 
tutelage  and  ecclesiastical  usurpation.     While,  underlying 


44  THE    RENAISSANCE 

all,  there  was  the  beginning  of  the  assertion  of  the 
Bupreme  right  of  individual  revolt  against  every  custom, 
law,  or  theory  which  would  subordinate  the  man  to  the 
caste  or  class.  The  Swiss  peasantry  began  it  when  they 
made  pikes  by  tying  their  scythes  to  their  alpenstocks, 
and,  standing  shoulder  to  shoulder  at  Morgarten  and 
Sempach,  broke  the  fiercest  charges  of  medieval  knight- 
hood. They  proved  that  man  for  man  the  peasant  was 
as  good  as  the  noble,  and  individual  manhood  asserted 
in  this  rude  and  bodily  fashion  soon  began  to  express 
itself  mentally  and  morally. 

In  jurisprudence  the  Eenaissance  may  be  described  as 
the  introduction  of  historical  and  scientific  methods,  the 
abandonment  of  legal  fictions  based  upon  collections  of 
*  false  decretals,  the  recovery  of  the  true  text  of  the  Eoman 
code,  and  the  substitution  of  civil  for  canon  law  as  the 
basis  of  legislation  and  government.  There  was  a 
complete  break  with  the  past.  The  substitution  of  civil 
law  based  upon  the  lawbooks  of  Justinian  for  the  canon 
law  founded  upon  the  Decretum  of  Gratian,  involved  such 
a  breach  in  continuity  that  it  was  the  most  momentous  of 
all  the  changes  of  that  period  of  transition.  For  law 
enters  into  every  human  relation,  and  a  thorough  change 
of  legal  principles  must  involve  a  revolution  which  is  none 
the  less  real  that  it  works  almost  silently.  The  codes  of 
Justinian  and  of  Theodosius  completely  reversed  the 
teachings  of  the  canonists,  and  the  civilian  lawyers  learned 
to  look  upon  the  Church  as  only  a  department  of  the 
State. 

In  literature  there  was  the  discovery  of  classical 
manuscripts,  the  introduction  of  the  study  of  Greek,  the 
perception  of  the  beauties  of  language  in  the  choice  and 
arrangement  of  words  under  the  guidance  of  classical 
models.  The  literary  powers  of  modern  languages  were 
also  discovered, — Italian,  English,  French,  and  German, — 
and  with  the  discovery  the  national  literatures  of  Europe 
came  into  being. 

In  art  a  complete  revolution  was  effected  in  architec- 


A   PERIOD   OF   TRANSITION  45 

ture,  painting,  and  sculpture  by  the  recovery  of  ancient 
models  and  the  study  of  the  principles  of  their  con- 
struction. 

The  manufacture  of  paper,  the  discovery  of  the  arts 
of  printing  and  engraving,  multiplied  the  possession  of  the 
treasures  of  the  intelligence  and  of  artistic  genius,  and 
combined  to  make  art  and  literature  democratic.  What 
was  once  confined  to  a  favoured  few  became  common  pro- 
perty. New  thouglits  could  act  on  men  in  masses,  and 
began  to  move  the  multitude.  The  old  mediaeval  barriers 
were  broken  down,  and  men  came  to  see  that  there  was 
more  in  religion  than  the  mediaeval  Church  had  taught, 
more  in  social  life  than  feudalism  had  manifested,  and 
that  knowledge  was  a  manifold  unknown  to  their 
fathers. 

If  the  Eenaissance  be  the  transition  from  the  mediaeval 
to  the  modern  world, — and  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  regard 
it  otherwise, — then  it  is  one  of  those  great  movements  of 
the  mind  of  mankind  that  almost  defy  exact  description, 
and  there  is  an  elusiveness  about  it  which  confounds  us 
when  we  attempt  definition.  **  It  was  the  emancipation  of 
the  reason,"  says  Symonds,  "  in  a  race  of  men,  intolerant 
of  control,  ready  to  criticise  canons  of  conduct,  enthusiastic 
of  antique  liberty,  freshly  awakened  to  the  sense  of  beauty, 
and  anxious  above  all  things  to  secure  for  themselves  free 
scope  in  spheres  outside  the  region  of  authority.  Men 
so  vigorous  and  independent  felt  the  joy  of  exploration. 
There  was  no  problem  they  feared  to  face,  no  formula 
they  were  not  eager  to  recast  according  to  their  new  con- 
ceptions." ^  It  was  the  blossoming  and  fructifying  of  the 
European  intellectual  life ;  but  perhaps  it  ought  to  be 
added  that  it  contained  a  new  conception  of  the  universe 
in  which  religion  consisted  less  in  a  feeling  of  dependence 
on  God,  and  more  in  a  faith  on  the  possibilities  lying  in 
mankind. 

^  Symouds,  lUnaissance  in  Italy,  Rvlval  of  Letters  (London,  1877X 
p.  IS. 


46  THE   RENAISSANCE 

I  2.  The  Bevival  of  Literature  and  Art, 

But  the  Eenaissance  has  generally  a  more  limited 
Qieaning,  and  one  defined  by  the  most  potent  of  the  new 
forces  which  worked  for  the  general  intellectual  regenera- 
tion. It  means  the  revival  of  learning  and  of  art  conse- 
quent on  the  discovery  and  study  of  the  literary  and 
artistic  masterpieces  of  antiquity.  It  is  perhaps  in  this 
more  limited  sense  that  the  movement  more  directly  pre- 
pared the  way  for  the  Reformation  and  what  followed,  and 
deserves  more  detailed  examination.  It  was  the  discovery 
of  a  lost  means  of  culture  and  the  consequent  awakening 
and  diffusion  of  a  Uterary,  artistic,  and  critical  spirit. 

A  knowledge  of  ancient  Latin  literature  had  not 
entirely  perished  during  the  earlier  Middle  Ages.  The 
Benedictine  monasteries  had  preserved  classical  manuscripts 
— especially  the  monastery  of  Monte  Cassino  for  the 
southern,  and  that  of  Fulda  for  the  northern  parts  of 
Europe.  These  monasteries  and  their  sister  establishments 
were  schools  of  learning  as  well  as  libraries,  and  we  read 
of  more  than  one  where  the  study  of  some  of  the  classical 
authors  was  part  of  the  regular  training.  Virgil,  Horace, 
Terence  and  Martial,  Livy,  Suetonius  and  Sallust,  were 
known  and  studied.  Greek  literature  had  not  survived  to 
anything  like  the  same  extent,  but  it  had  never  entirely 
disappeared  from  Southern  Europe,  and  especially  from 
Southern  Italy.  Ever  since  the  days  of  the  Eoman 
Republic  in  that  part  of  the  Italian  peninsula  once  called 
Magna  Graecia,  Greek  had  been  the  language  of  many  of 
the  common  people,  as  it  is  to  this  day,  in  districts  of 
Calabria  and  of  Sicily ;  and  the  teachers  and  students  of 
the  mediaeval  University  of  Salerno  had  never  lost  their 
taste  for  its  study.^  But  with  all  this,  the  fourteenth 
century,  and  notably  the  age  of  Petrarch,  saw  the  begin - 

*  There  is  evidence  that  Thomas  Aquinas  was  not  dependent,  as  is  com- 
monly supposed,  for  his  acquaintance  with  Greek  philosophy  on  translations 
into  Latin  of  the  Arabic  translations  of  portions  of  Aristotle,  but  that  he 
procured  Latin  versions  made  directly  from  the  original  Greek. 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS  47 

nings  of  new  zeal  for  the  literature  of  the  past,  and  waa 
really  the  beginning  of  a  new  era. 

Italy  was  the  first  land  to  become  free  from  the 
conditions  of  mediaeval  life,  and  ready  to  enter  on  the  new 
life  which  was  awaiting  Europe.  There  was  an  Italian 
language,  the  feeling  of  distinct  nationality,  a  considerable 
advance  in  civilisation,  an  accumulation  of  wealth,  and, 
during  the  age  of  the  despots,  a  comparative  freedom  from 
constant  changes  in  political  conditions. 

Dante's  great  poem,  interweaving  as  it  does  the  imagery 
and  mysticism  of  Giacchino  di  Fiore,  the  deepest  spiritual 
and  moral  teaching  of  the  mediaeval  Church,  and  the 
insight  and  judgment  on  men  and  things  of  a  great  poet, 
was  the  first  sign  that  Italy  had  wakened  from  the  sleep 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  Petrarch  came  next,  the  passionate 
student  of  the  lives,  the  thoughts,  and  emotions  of  the 
great  masters  of  classical  Latin  literature.  They  were  real 
men  for  him,  his  own  Italian  ancestors,  and  they  as  he 
had  felt  the  need  of  Hellenic  culture  to  solace  their  souls, 
and  serve  for  the  universal  education  of  the  human  race. 
Boccaccio,  the  third  leader  in  the  awakening,  preached  the 
joy  of  living,  the  universal  capacity  for  pleasure,  and  the 
sensuous  beauty  of  the  world.  He  too,  like  Petrarch,  felt 
the  need  of  Hellenic  culture.  For  both  there  was  an 
awakening  to  the  beauty  of  literary  form,  and  the  con- 
viction that  a  study  of  the  ancient  classics  would  enable 
them  to  achieve  it.  Both  valued  the  vision  of  a  new 
conception  of  life  derived  from  the  perusal  of  the  classics, 
freer,  more  enlarged  and  joyous,  more  rational  than  the 
Middle  Ages  had  witnessed.  Petrarch  and  Boccaccio 
yearned  after  the  life  thus  disclosed,  which  gave  unfettered 
scope  to  the  play  of  the  emotions,  to  the  sense  of  beauty, 
and  to  the  manifold  activity  of  the  human  intelligence. 

Learned  Greeks  were  induced  to  settle  in  Italy — men 
who  were  able  to  interpret  the  ancient  Greek  poets  and 
prose  writers — Manuel  Chrysoloras  (at  Florence,  1397- 
1400),  George  of  Trebizond,  Theodore  Gaza  (whose  Greek 
Orammar  Erasmus  taught  from  while  in  England),  Gemistos 


48  THE   RENAISSANCB 

Plethon,  a  distinguished  Platonist,  under  whom  the  Chris- 
tian Platonism  received  its  impulse,  and  John  Argyropoulos, 
who  was  the  teacher  of  Reuchlin.  The  men  of  the  early 
TJenaissance  were  their  pupils. 

§  3.  Its  earlier  relation  to  Christianity, 

There  was  nothing  hostile  to  Christianity  or  to  the 
mediaeval  Church  in  the  earlier  stages  of  this  intellectual 
revival,  and  very  little  of  the  neo-paganism  which  it 
developed  afterwards.  Many  of  the  instincts  of  mediaeval 
piety  remained,  only  the  objects  were  changed.  Petrarch 
revered  the  MS.  of  Homer,  which  he  could  not  read,  as  an 
ancestor  of  his  might  have  venerated  the  scapulary  of  a 
saint.^  The  men  of  the  early  Eenaissance  made  collections 
of  MSS.  and  inscriptions,  of  cameos  and  of  coins,  and 
worshipped  them  as  if  they  had  been  relics.  The  Medicean 
Library  was  formed  about  1450,  the  Vatican  Library  in 
1453,  and  the  age  of  passionate  collection  began. 

The  age  of  scholarship  succeeded,  and  Italian  students 
began  to  interpret  the  ancient  classical  authors  with  a 
mysticism  all  their  own.  They  sought  a  means  of  recon- 
ciling Christian  thought  with  ancient  pagan  philosophy, 
and,  like  Clement  of  Alexandria  and  Origen,  discovered  it 
in  Platonism.  Platonic  academies  were  founded,  and 
Cardinal  Bessarion,  Marsiglio  Ficino,  and  Pico  della  Mir- 
andola  became  the  Christian  Platonists  of  Italy.  Of  course, 
in  their  enthusiasm  they  went  too  far.  They  appropriated 
the  whole  intellectual  life  of  a  pagan  age,  and  adopted  its 
ethical  as  well  as  its  intellectual  perceptions,  its  basis  of 
sensuous  pleasures,  and  its  joy  in  sensuous  living.  Still 
their  main  thought  was  to  show  that  Hellenism  as  well 
as  Judaism  was  a  pathway  to  Christianity,  and  that  the 
Sibyl  as  well  as  David  was  a  witness  for  Christ. 

The  Papacy  lent  its  patronage  to  the  revival  of  litera- 

^  He  embraced  it,  sighed  over  it,  and  told  it  how  he  longeil  to  hear  it 
•peak:  Fracasetti,  Fraiicisei  PetrarehcB,  IJpistolce /amiliares  ef  varice,  ii. 
472-476. 


RELATION   TO    RELIGION  49 

!  ture  and  art,  and  put  itself  at  the  head  of  the  movement 
of  intellectual  life.  Pope  Nicolas  V.  (1447—1455)  was  the 
6rst  Bishop  of  Eome  who  fostered  the  Eenaissance,  and  he 
himself  may  be  taken  as  representing  the  sincerity,  the 
simplicity,  and  the  lofty  intellectual  and  artistic  aims  of 
its  earliest  period.  Sprung  from  an  obscure  family  belong- 
ing to  Sazanza,  a  small  town  near  Spezzia,  and  cast  on  his 
own  resources  before  he  had  fairly  quitted  boyhood,  he  had 
risen  by  his  talents  and  his  character  to  the  highest  position 
in  the  Church.  He  had  been  private  tutor,  secretary, 
librarian,  and  through  all  a  genuine  lover  of  books.  They 
were  the  only  personal  luxury  he  indulged  in,  and  perhaps 
no  one  in  his  days  knew  more  about  them.  He  was  the 
confidential  adviser  of  Lorenzo  de  Medici  when  he  founded 
his  great  library  in  San  Marco.  He  himself  began  the 
Vatican  Library.  He  had  agents  who  ransacked  the 
monasteries  of  Europe,  and  he  collected  the  literary  relics 
which  had  escaped  destruction  in  the  sack  of  Constanti- 
nople. Before  his  death  his  library  in  the  Vatican  contained 
more  than  5000  MSS.  He  gathered  round  him  a  band 
of  illustrious  artists  and  scholars.  He  filled  Eome  with 
skilled  and  artistic  artisans,  with  decorators,  jewellers, 
workers  in  painted  glass  and  embroidery.  The  famous  Leo 
Alberti  was  one  of  his  architects,  and  Fra  Angelico  one 
of  his  artists.  Laurentius  Valla  and  Poggio  Bracciolini, 
Cardinal  Bessarion  and  George  of  Trebizond,  were  among 
his  scholars.  He  directed  and  inspired  their  work.  Valla's 
critical  attacks  on  the  Donation  of  Constantine,  and  on  the 
tradition  that  the  Twelve  had  dictated  the  Apostles'  Creed, 
did  not  shake  his  confidence  in  the  scholar.  The  principal 
Greek  authors  were  translated  into  Latin  by  his  orders. 
Europe  saw  theology,  learning,  and  art  lending  each  other 
mutual  support  under  the  leadership  of  the  head  of  the 
Church.  Perhaps  Julius  n.  (1503—1513)  conceived  more 
definitely  than  even  Nicolas  had  done  that  one  duty  of 
the  head  of  the  Church  was  to  assume  the  leadership  of 
the  intellectual  and  artistic  movement  which  was  making 
wider  the  thought  of  Europe, — only  his  restless  energy 
4' 


50  THE   RENAISSANCE 

never  permitted  him  leisure  to  give  effect  to  his  con- 
ception. "The  instruction  which  Pope  Julius  li.  gave 
to  Michelangelo  to  represent  him  as  Moses  can  bear  but 
one  interpretation :  that  Julius  set  himself  the  mission 
of  leading  forth  Israel  (the  Church)  from  its  state  of 
degradation,  and  showing  it — though  he  could  not  grant 
possession — the  Promised  Land  at  least  from  afar,  that 
blessed  land  which  consists  in  the  enjoyment  of  the 
highest  intellectual  benefits,  and  the  training  and  con- 
secration of  all  the  faculties  of  man's  mind  to  imion 
with  God."i 

The  classical  revival  in  Italy  soon  exhausted  itself. 
Its  sensuous  perceptions  degenerated  into  sensuality,  its 
instinct  for  the  beauty  of  expression  into  elegant  trifling, 
and  its  enthusiasm  for  antiquity  into  neo-paganism.  It 
failed  almost  from  the  first  in  real  moral  earnestness; 
scarcely  saw,  and  still  less  understood,  how  to  cure  the 
deep-seated  moral  evils  of  the  age. 

Italy  had  given  birth  to  the  Eenaissance,  but  it  soon 
spread  to  the  more  northern  lands.  Perhaps  Germany  first 
felt  the  impulse,  then  France  and  England  last  of  all. 
In  dealing  with  the  Eeformation,  the  movement  in  Germany 
is  the  most  important. 

The  Germans,  throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  had  con- 
tinuous and  intimate  relations  with  the  southern  peninsula, 
and  in  the  fifteenth  century  these  were  stronger  than  ever. 
German  merchants  had  their  factories  in  Venice  and  Genoa ; 
young  German  nobles  destined  for  a  legal  or  diplomatic 
career  studied  law  at  Italian  universities;  students  of 
medicine  completed  their  studies  in  the  famous  southern 
schools ;  and  the  German  wandering  student  frequently 
crossed  the  Alps  to  pick  up  additional  knowledge.  There 
was  such  constant  scholarly  intercourse  between  Germany 
and  Italy,  that  the  New  Learning  could  not  fail  to  spread 
among  the  men  of  the  north. 

*  Frofeasor  Krauss,  Cambridge  Modem  Hiatory,  ii.  C 


BRETHREN   OF   THE  COMMON   LOT  51 

§  4.  The  Brethren  of  the  Common  Lot, 

Germany  and  the  Low  Countries  had  been  singularly 
prepared  for  that  revival  of  letters,  art,  and  science  which 
had  come  to  Italy.  One  of  the  greatest  gifts  bestowed  by 
the  Mystics  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  on 
their  native  land  had  been  an  excellent  system  of  school 
education.  Gerard  Groot,  a  disciple  of  the  Flemish  mystic 
Jan  van  Eysbroeck,  had,  after  long  consultations  with  his 
Master,  founded  a  brotherhood  called  the  Brethren  of  the 
Common  Life}  whose  aim  was  to  better  the  religious  con- 
dition of  their  fellow-men  by  the  multiplication  of  good 
books  and  by  the  careful  training  of  the  young.  They 
were  to  support  themselves  by  copying  and  selling  manu- 
scripts. All  the  houses  of  the  Brethren  had  a  large 
room,  where  a  number  of  scribes  sat  at  tables,  a  reader 
repeated  slowly  the  words  of  the  manii  :i'ipt,  and  books 
were  multiplied  as  rapidly  as  was  possible  before  the 
invention  of  printing.  They  filled  their  own  libraries 
with  the  best  books  of  Christian  and  pagan  antiquity. 
They  multiplied  small  tracts  containing  the  mystical  and 
practical  theology  of  the  Friends  of  Gody  and  sent  them 
into  circulation  among  the  people.  One  of  the  intimate 
followers  of  Groot,  Florentius  Kadewynsohn,  proved  to  be 
a  distinguished  educationalist,  and  the  schools  of  the  Order 
soon  became  famous.  The  Brethren,  to  use  the  words 
of  their  founder,  employed  education  for  the  purpose 
of  "raising  spiritual  pillars  in  the  Temple  of  the  Lord." 
They  insisted  on  a  study  of  the  Vulgate  in  their  classes ; 
they  placed  German  translations  of  Christian  authors  in 
the  hands  of  their  pupils ;  they  took  pains  to  give  them 
a  good  knowledge  of  Latin,  and  read  with  them  selections 
from  the  best  known  ancient  authors;  they  even  taught 
a  little  Greek;  and  their  scholars  learned  to  sing  the 
simpler,  more  evangelical  Latin  hymns. 

The  mother  school  was  at  Deventer,  a  town  situated  at 

^  0.  H.  Delprot   Verhandeling  over  de  Brcederschap  van  Ottwrd  ChrmU 
(Ainlieim,  1866). 


52  THE   RENAISSANCE 

the  south-west  comer  of  the  great  episcopal  territory  of 
Utrecht,  now  the  Dutch  province  of  Ober-Yessel.  It  lies 
on  the  bank  of  that  branch  of  the  Khine  (the  Yessel)  which 
flowing  northwards  glides  past  Zutphen,  Deventer,  Zwolle, 
and  loses  itself  in  the  Zuyder  Zee  at  Kampen.  A  large 
number  of  the  more  distinguished  leaders  of  the  fifteenth 
century  owed  their  early  training  to  this  great  school  at 
Deventer.  During  the  last  decades  of  the  fifteenth  century 
the  headmaster  was  Alexander  Hegius  (Haage  1433-1498), 
who  came  to  Deventer  in  1471  and  remained  there  until  his 
death.^  The  school  reached  its  height  of  fame  under  this 
renowned  master,  who  gathered  2000  pupils  around  him, 
— among  them  Erasmus,  Conrad  Mutti  (Mutianus  Rufus), 
Hermann  von  Busch,  Johann  Murmellius, — and,  rejecting 
the  older  methods  of  grammatical  instruction,  taught 
them  to  know  the  niceties  of  the  Latin  tongue  by  leading 
them  directly  to  the  study  of  the  great  writers  of  classical 
antiquity.  He  was  such  an  indefatigable  student  that  he 
kept  himself  awake  during  the  night-watches',  it  is  said,  by 
holding  in  his  hands  the  candle  which  lighted  him,  in  order 
to  be  wakened  by  its  fall  should  slumber  overtake  him. 
The  glory  of  Deventer  perished  with  this  great  teacher, 
who  to  the  last  maintamed  the  ancient  traditions  of  the 
school  by  his  maxim,  that  learning  without  piety  was  rather 
a  curse  than  a  blessing. 

Other  famous  schools  of  the  Brethren  in  the  second 
half  of  the  fifteenth  century  were  Schlettstadt,^  in  Elsass, 
some  miles  from  the  west  bank  of  the  Ehine,  and  about 
half-way  between  Strassburg  and  Basel ;  Munster  on  the 
Ems,  the  Monasterium  of  the  earlier  Middle  Ages ;  Emme- 
rich, a  town  on  the  Rhine  near  the  borders  of  Holland,  and 
Altmarck,  in  the  north-west.  Schlettstadt,  under  its  master 
Ludwig  Dringenberg,  almost  rivalled  the  fame  of  Da  venter, 
and  many  of  the  members  of  the  well-known  Strassburg  circle 
which  gathered  round  Jacob  Wimpheling,  Sebastian  Brand, 

*  H.  Hartfelder,  Der  Ziostand  der  dewtschen  Hodischulen  am  Ende  de$ 
MUtelalters.     ffist.  Zeitschr,  Lxiv.  50-107,  1890. 

•  Stniver,  Die  Schule  von  Schlettstadt  (Leipzig,  1880). 


UNIVERSITIES    AND   SCHOOLS  53 

and  tlie  German  Savonarola,  John  Geiler  von  Keysersberg, 
had  been  pupils  in  this  school.  Besides  these  more  famous 
establishments,  the  schools  of  the  Brethren  spread  all  over 
Germany.  The  teachers  were  commonly  called  the  Boll- 
Brueder,  and  under  this  name  they  had  a  school  in  Magde- 
burg to  which  probably  Luther  was  sent  when  he  spent  a 
year  in  that  town.  Their  work  was  so  pervading  and  their 
teaching  so  effectual,  that  we  are  informed  by  chroniclers, 
who  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  Brethren,  that  in  many 
German  towns,  girls  could  be  heard  singing  the  simpler 
Latin  hymns,  and  that  the  children  of  artisans  could 
converse  in  Latin. 


§  5.  German  Universities,  Schools,  and  Scholarship, 

The  desire  for  education  spread  all  over  Germany  in 
the  fifteenth  century.  Princes  and  burghers  vied  with  each 
other  in  erecting  seats  of  learning.  Within  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  no  fewer  than  seventeen  new  universities 
were  founded.  Prag,  a  Bohemian  foundation,  came  into 
existence  in  1348.  Then  followed  four  German  founda- 
tions, Vienna,  in  1365  or  1384;  Heidelberg,  in  1386  ;  Koln, 
in  1388;  and  Erfurt,  established  by  the  townspeople,  in 
1392.  In  the  fifteenth  century  there  were  Leipzig,  in 
1409  ;  Eostock,  on  the  shore  of  what  was  called  the  East 
Sea,  almost  opposite  the  south  point  of  Sweden,  in  1419  ; 
Cracow,  a  Polish  foundation,  in  1420  ;  Greifswald,  in  1456  ; 
Freiburg  and  Trier,  in  1457  ;  Basel,  in  1460  ;  Ingolstadt, 
founded  with  the  special  intention  of  training  students  in 
obedience  to  the  Pope,  a  task  singularly  well  accomplished, 
in  1472;  Tubingen  and  Mainz,  in  1477;  Wittenberg,  in 
1502;  and  Frankfurt-on-the-Oder,  in  1507.  Marburg,  the 
first  Eeformation  University,  was  founded  in  1527. 

The  craving  for  education  laid  hold  on  the  burgher 
class,  and  towns  vied  with  each  other  in  providing  superior 
schools,  with  teachers  paid  out  of  the  town's  revenues. 
Some  German  towns  had  several  such  foundations. 
Breslau,  "  the   student's   paradise,"  had   seven.     Nor  was 


54  THE    RENAISSANCE 

the  education  of  girls  neglected.  Frankfurt- on- the-Main 
founded  a  high  school  for  girls  early  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  and  insisted  that  the  teachers  were  to  be  learned 
ladies  who  were  not  nuns.^  Besides  the  classrooms,  the 
towns  usually  provided  hostels,  where  the  boys  got  lodging 
and  sometimes  firewood  (they  were  expected  to  obtain  food 
by  begging  through  the  streets  of  the  town),  and  frequently 
hospitals  where  the  scholars  could  be  tended  in  illness.^ 
{  These  possibilities  of  education  attracted  boys  from  all 
parts  of  the  country,  and  added  a  new  class  of  vagrants  to 
the  tramps  of  all  kinds  who  infested  the  roads  during  the 
latei?  Middle  Ages.  The  wandering  scholar,  with  his  yellow 
scarf,  was  a  feature  of  the  era,  and  frequently  not  a  reput- 
able one.  He  was  usually  introduced  as  a  character  into 
the  Fastnachtspiele,  or  rude  popular  carnival  comedies,  and 
was  almost  always  a  rogue  and  often  a  thief.  Children 
of  ten  and  twelve  years  of  age  left  their  villages,  in  charge 
of  an  older  student,  to  join  some  famous  school.  But 
these  older  students  were  too  often  mere  vagrants,  with  just 
learning  enough  to  impose  upon  the  simple  peasantry, 
to  whom  they  sold  charms  against  toothache  and  other 
troubles.  The  young  children  entrusted  to  them  by  con- 
fiding parents  were  often  treated  with  the  greatest  cruelty, 
employed  by  them  to  beg  or  steal  food,  and  sent  round  to 
the  public-houses  with  cans  to  beg  for  beer.  The  small 
unfortunates  were  the  prisoners,  the  slaves,  of  their  dis- 
reputable masters,  and  many  of  them  died  by  the  roadside. 
We  need  not  wonder  that  Luther,  with  his  memory  full  of 
these  wandering  students,  in  after  days  denounced  the 
system  by  which  men  spent  sometimes  "  twenty  and  even 
forty  years  "  in  a  so-called  student  life,  which  was  often 
one  of  the  lowest  vagrancy  and  debauchery,  and  in  the  end 
knew  neither  German  nor  Latin,  "  to  say  nothing,"  he  adds 
with  honest  indignation,  "  of  the  shameful  and  vicious  life 
by  which  our  worthy  youth  have  been  so  grievously  cor- 

*  Kriegk,  Deutsehes  Biirgerthum  im  Mittelalter,  neue  Folge  (Frankfurt  a. 
M.  1868),  pp.  77  ff. 

2  Boos,  Thomas  und  Felix  Plattyr  (Leipzig,  1878),  pp.  20  ff. 


UNIVERSITIES    AND    SCHOOLS  55 

rupted."  Two  or  three  of  the  autobiographies  of  these 
wandering  students  haie  survived  ;  and  two  of  them,  those 
of  Thomas  Platter  and  of  Johann  Butzbach,  belong  tc 
Luther's  time,  and  give  a  vivid  picture  of  their  lives.^ 

Germany  had  no  lack  of  schools  and  universities,  but  it 
can  scarcely  be  said  that  they  did  more  than  serve  as  a 
preparation  for  the  entrance  of  the  Eenaissance  move- 
ment. During  the  fifteenth  century  all  the  Universities 
were  under  the  influence  of  the  Church,  and  Scholasticism 
prescribed  the  methods  of  study.  Very  little  of  the  New 
Learning  was  allowed  to  enter.  It  is  true  that  if  Koln  and 
perhaps  Ingolstadt  be  excepted,  the  Scholastic  which  was 
taught  represented  what  were  supposed  to  be  the  more 
advanced  opinions — those  of  John  Duns  Scotus,  William 
of  Occam,  and  Gabriel  Biel,  rather  than  the  learning 
of  Thomas  Aquinas  and  other  great  defenders  of  papal 
traditions ;  but  it  lent  itself  as  thoroughly  as  did  the  older 
Scholastic  to  the  discussion  of  all  kinds  of  verbal  and 
logical  subtleties.  Knowledge  of  every  kind  was  discussed 
under  formulae  and  phrases  sanctioned  by  long  scholastic 
use.  It  is  impossible  to  describe  the  minute  distinctions 
and  the  intricate  reasoning  based  upon  them  without 
exceeding  the  space  at  our  disposal.  It  is  enough  to  say 
that  the  prevailing  course  of  study  furnished  an  imposing 
framework  without  much  solid  content,  and  provided  an 
intellectual  gymnastic  without  much  real  knowledge.  A 
survival  can  be  seen  in  the  Formal  Logic  still  taught. 
The  quantity  of  misspent  ingenuity  called  forth  to  produce 
the  figures  and  moods,  and  bestowed  on  discovering  and 
arranging  aU  possible  moods  under  each  figure  and  in 
providing  all  with  mnemonic  names, — Barbara^  Celarenty 
Darii,  Ferioque  prioris,  etc., — affords  some  insight  into  the 
scholastic  methods  in  use  in  these  universities  of  the 
fifteenth  century. 

Then    it    must   be   remembered  that    the   scholarship 

*  H.  Boos,  Th,omas  und  Felix  Platter  (Leipzig,  1876) ;  Becker,  Chronica 
det/ofurenden  SchuUrs  oder  Wcmderlilchlein  des  Jdhannu  BtUzbach  (Batis- 
bon,  1869). 


56  THE   RENAISSANCE 

took  a  quasi-ecclesiastical  form.  The  universities  were 
all  monastic  institutions,  where  the  teachers  were  pro- 
fessional and  the  students  amateur  celibates.  The  scholars 
were  gathered  into  hostels  in  which  they  lived  with 
their  teachers,  and  were  tauglit  to  consider  themselves 
very  superior  persons.  The  statutes  of  mediaeval  Oxford 
declare  that  God  created  "  clerks "  with  gifts  of  intelli- 
gence denied  to  mere  lay  persons ;  that  it  behoved  "  clerks  " 
to  exhibit  this  difference  by  their  outward  appearance ;  and 
that  the  university  tailors,  whose  duty  it  was  to  make  men 
extrinsecus  what  God  had  made  them  intrinsecus,  were  to  be 
reckoned  as  members  of  the  University.  Those  mediaeval 
students  sometimes  assumed  airs  which  roused  the  passions 
of  the  laity,  and  frequently  led  to  tremendous  riots.  Thus 
in  1513  the  townsfolk  of  Erfurt  battered  in  the  gates  of 
the  University  with  cannon,  and  after  the  flight  of  the 
professors  and  students  destroyed  almost  all  the  archives 
and  library.  About  the  same  time  some  citizens  of  Vienna 
having  jeered  at  the  sacred  student  dress,  there  ensued  the 
"  Latin  war,"  which  literally  devastated  the  town.  This  pride 
of  separation  between  "  clerks  "  and  laity  culminated  in  the 
great  annual  procession,  when  the  newly  capped  graduates, 
clothed  in  all  the  glory  of  new  bachelors'  and  masters*  gowns 
and  hoods,  marched  through  the  principal  streets  of  the 
university  town,  in  the  midst  of  the  university  dignitaries 
and  frequently  attended  by  the  magistrates  in  their  robes. 
Young  Luther  confessed  that  when  he  first  saw  the  pro- 
cession at  Erfurt  he  thought  that  no  position  on  earth  was 
more  enviable  than  that  of  a  newly  capped  graduate. 
j  Mediaeval  ecclesiastical  tradition  brooded  over  all  de- 
partments of  learning;  and  the  philosophy  and  logic,  or 
[what  were  supposed  to  be  the  philosophy  and  logic,  of 
Aristotle  ruled  that  tradition.  The  reverence  for  the  name 
of  Aristotle  almost  took  the  form  of  a  religious  fervour. 
In  a  curious  mediaeval  Zi/e  of  Aristotle  the  ancient  pagan 
thinker  is  declared  to  be  a  forerunner  of  Christ.  All  who 
refused  to  accept  his  guidance  were  heretics,  and  his 
formal    scheme   of   thought  was   supposed   to  justify  the 


GERMAN    HUMANISTS  57 

refined  sophisms  of  mediaeval  dialectic.  His  system  oi 
thought  was  the  fortified  defence  which  preserved  the 
old  and  proteiited  it  from  the  inroads  of  the  New  Learn- 
ing. Hence  the  hatred  which  almost  all  the  German 
Humanists  seem  to  have  had  for  the  name  of  Aristotla 
The  attitudes  of  the  partisans  of  the  old  and  of  the  new 
towards  the  ancient  Greek  thinker  are  represented  in  two 
pictures,  each  instinct  with  the  feeling  of  the  times.  In 
one,  in  the  church  of  the  Dominicans  in  Pisa,  Aristotle  is 
represented  standing  on  the  right  with  Plato  on  the  left  of 
Thomas  Aquinas,  and  rays  streaming  from  their  opened 
books  make  a  halo  round  the  head  of  the  great  mediaeval 
theologian  and  thinker.  In  the  other,  a  woodcut  published 
by  Hans  Holbein  the  younger  in  1527,  Aristotle  with  the 
mediaeval  doctors  is  represented  descending  into  the  abodes 
of  darkness,  while  Jesus  Christ  stands  in  the  foreground 
and  points  out  the  true  light  to  a  crowd  of  people,  among 
whom  the  artist  has  figured  peasants  with  their  flails. 

§  6.  The  earlier  German  Humanists, 

When  the  beginnings  of  the  New  Learning  made  their 
appearance  in  Germany,  they  did  not  bring  with  them  any 
widespread  revival  of  culture.  There  was  no  outburst,  as 
in  Italy,  of  the  artistic  spirit,  stamping  itself  upon  such 
arts  as  painting,  sculpture,  and  architecture,  which  could 
appeal  to  the  whole  public  intelligence.  The  men  who 
first  felt  the  stirrings  of  the  new  intellectual  life  were,  for 
the  most  part,  students  who  had  been  trained  in  the  more 
famous  schools  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life,  all 
of  whom  had  a  serious  aim  in  life.  The  New  Learning 
appealed  to  them  not  so  much  a  means  of  self-culture  as 
an  instrument  to  reform  education,  to  criticise  antiquated 
methods  of  instruction,  and,  above  all,  to  effect  reforms  in 
the  Church  and  to  purify  the  social  life.  One  of  the  most 
conspicuous  of  such  scholars  was  Cardinal  Nicolas  Cusanus  * 

*  Scharptf,  Der  Cardinal  und  Bischof  Nicolaus  von  Cuaa  als  Ee/omuUct 
in  Kirche,  Reich  und  Philosophie  (Tiibingen,  1871). 


58  THE    RENAISSANCE 

(1401-1464).  He  was  a  man  of  singularly  open  mind, 
who,  while  he  was  saturated  with  the  old  learning,  was  able 
to  appreciate  the  new.  He  had  studied  the  classics  in 
Italy.  He  was  an  expert  mathematician  and  astronomer. 
Some  have  even  asserted  that  he  anticipated  the  discoveries 
of  Galileo.  The  instruments  with  which  he  worked, 
roughly  made  by  a  village  tinsmith,  may  still  be  seen 
preserved  in  the  Brother-house  which  he  founded  at  his 
birthplace.  Cues,  on  the  Mosel ;  and  there,  too,  the  sheets, 
covered  with  his  long  calculations  for  the  reform  of  the 
calendar,  may  still  be  studied. 

Another  scholar,  sent  out  by  the  same  schools,  was 
John  Wessel  of  Groningen  (1420—1489),  who  wandered  in 
search  of  learning  from  Koln  to  Paris  and  from  Paris  to 
Italy.  He  finally  settled  down  as  a  canon  in  the  Brother- 
hood of  Mount  St.  Agnes.  There  he  gathered  round  him 
a  band  of  young  students,  whom  he  encouraged  to  study 
Greek  and  Hebrew.  He  was  a  theologian  who  delighted 
to  criticise  the  current  opinions  on  theological  doctrines. 
He  denied  that  the  fire  of  Purgatory  could  be  material  fire, 
and  he  theorised  about  indulgences  in  such  a  way  as  to  be 
a  forerunner  of  Luther.^  "  If  I  had  read  his  books  before," 
said  Luther,  "  my  enemies  might  have  thought  that  Luther 
had  borrowed  everything  from  Wessel,  so  great  is  the 
agreement  between  our  spirits.  I  feel  my  joy  and  my 
strength  increase,  I  have  no  doubt  that  I  have  taught 
aright,  when  I  find  that  one  who  wrote  at  a  different  time, 
in  another  clime,  and  with  a  different  intention,  agrees  so 
entirely  in  my  view  and  expresses  it  in  almost  the  same 
words." 

Other  like-minded  scholars  might  be  mentioned, 
Rudolph  Agricola2  (1442-1485),  Jacob  WimphelingS 
(1450-1528),  and  Sebastian  Brand   (1457-1521),  who 

*  Wessel's  most  important  Theses  on  Indulgences  are  given  in  Ullmann, 
Brformers  before  the  Beformation  (Edinbuigh,  1855),  ii.  546  f. 

*  Tresling,  Vita  et  Merita  Rudolphi  Agricola  (Groningen,  1830). 
'Wiskowatoff,    Jacob    Wimphelirig,    sein    Lehen   und   seim  Sehirifttn 

(Berlin,  1867). 


GERMAN   HUMANISTS  5^ 

was  town-clerk  of  Sirassburg  from  1500,  and  the  author 
of  the  celebrated  Ship  of  Fools,  which  was  translated  into 
many  languages,  and  was  used  by  his  friend  Geiler  of 
Keysersberg  as  the  text  for  one  of  his  courses  of  popular 
sermons. 

All  these  men,  and  others  like-minded  and  similarly 
gifted,  are  commonly  regarded  as  the  precursors  of  the 
German  Renaissance,  and  are  classed  among  the  German 
Humanists.  Yet  it  may  be  questioned  whether  they  can  be 
t^ken  as  the  representatives  of  that  kind  of  Humanism  which 
gathered  round  Luther  in  his  student  days,  and  of  which 
Ulrich  von  Hut  ten,  the  stormy  petrel  of  the  times  of  the 
Reformation,  was  a  notable  example.  Its  beginnings  must 
be  traced  to  other  and  less  reputable  pioneers.  Numbers  of 
young  German  students,  with  the  talent  for  wandering  and 
for  supporting  themselves  by  begging  possessed  by  so  many 
of  them,  had  tramped  down  to  Italy,  where  they  contrived 
to  exist  precariously  while  they  attended,  with  a  genuine 
thirst  for  learning,  the  classes  taught  by  Italian  Humanists. 
There  they  became  infected  with  the  spirit  of  the  Italian 
Renaissance,  and  learned  also  to  despise  the  ordinary 
restraints  of  moral  living.  There  they  imbibed  a  contempt 
for  the  Church  and  for  all  kinds  of  theology,  and  acquired 
the  genuine  temperament  of  the  later  Italian  Humanists, 
which  could  be  irreligious  without  being  anti-religious, 
simply  because  religion  of  any  sort  was  something  foreign 
to  their  nature. 

Such  a  man  was  Peter  Luders  (1415-1474).  He 
began  life  as  an  ecclesiastic,  wandered  down  into  Italy, 
where  he  devoted  himself  to  classical  studies,  and  where  he 
acquired  the  irreligious  disposition  and  the  disregard  for 
ordinary  moral  living  which  disgraced  a  large  part  of  the 
later  Italian  Humanista  While  living  at  Padua  (1444), 
where  he  acted  as  private  tutor  to  some  young  Germans 
from  the  Palatinate,  he  was  invited  by  the  Elector  to  teach 
Latin  in  the  University  of  Heidelberg.  The  older  pro- 
fessors were  jealous  of  him :  they  insisted  on  reading  and 
revising  his  introductory  lecture :  they  refused  him  the  us© 


60  THE   RENAISSANCE 

of  the  library  ;  and  in  general  made  his  life  a  burden.  He 
struggled  on  till  1460.  Then  he  spent  many  years  in 
wandering  from  place  to  place,  teaching  the  classics  pri- 
vately to  such  scholars  as  he  could  find.  He  was  not  a 
man  of  reputable  life,  was  greatly  given  to  drink,  a  free 
liver  in  every  way,  and  thoroughly  irreligious,  with  a  strong 
contempt  for  all  theology.  He  seems  to  have  contrived 
when  sober  to  keep  his  heretical  opinions  to  himself,  but  to 
have  betrayed  himself  occasionally  in  his  drinking  bouts. 
When  at  Basel  he  was  accused  of  denying  the  doctrine  of 
Three  Persons  in  the  Godhead,  and  told  his  accusers  that 
he  would  willingly  confess  to  four  if  they  would  only  let 
him  alone.  He  ended  his  days  as  a  teacher  of  medicine 
in  Vienna. 

History  has  preserved  the  names  of  several  of  these 
wandering  scholars  who  sowed  the  seeds  of  classical  studies 
in  Germany,  and  there  were,  doubtless,  many  who  have 
been  forgotten.  Loose  living,  irreligious,  their  one  gift  a 
genuine  desire  to  know  and  impart  a  knowledge  of  the 
ancient  classical  literature,  careless  how  they  fared  pro- 
vided only  they  could  study  and  teach  Latin  and  Greek, 
they  were  the  disreputable  apostles  of  the  New  Learning, 
and  in  their  careless  way  scattered  it  over  the  northern 
lands. 

§  7.  The  Humanist  Circles  in  the  Cities, 

The  seed-beds  of  the  German  Eenaissance  were  at  first 
not  so  much  the  Universities,  as  associations  of  intimates  in 
some  of  the  cities.  Three  were  pre-eminent, — Strassburg, 
Augsburg,  and  Ntirnberg,  —  all  wealthy  imperial  cities, 
having  intimate  relations  with  the  imperial  court  on  the 
one  hand  and  with  Italy  on  the  other. 

The  Humanist  circle  at  Niirnberg  was  perhaps  the 
most  distinguished,  and  it  stood  in  closer  relations  than 
any  other  with  the  coming  Reformation.  Its  best  known 
member  was  Willibald  Pirkheimer  ^  (1470-1528),  whose 
training  had  been  more  that  of  a  young  Florentine  patrician 

»  Roth,  Willibald  Pirkheimer  (Hal)e,  1887). 


HUMANISM    IN    THE   CITIES  61 

than  of  the  son  of  a  German  burgher.  His  father,  a 
wealthy  Niirnberg  merchant  of  great  intellectual  gifts  and 
attainments,  a  skilled  diplomatist,  and  a  confidential  friend 
of  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  superintended  his  son's  educa- 
tion. He  took  the  boy  with  him  on  the  journeys  which 
trade  or  the  diplomatic  business  of  his  city  compelled  him 
to  make,  and  initiated  him  into  the  mysteries  of  commerce 
and  of  German  politics.  The  lad  was  also  trained  in  the 
knightly  accomplishments  of  horsemanship  and  the  skilful 
use  of  weapons.  He  was  sent,  like  many  a  young  German 
patrician,  to  Padua  and  Pa  via  (1490-1497)  to  study  juris- 
prudence and  the  science  of  diplomacy,  and  was  advised 
not  to  neglect  opportunities  to  acquire  the  New  Learning. 
AVhen  he  returned,  in  his  twenty-seventh  year,  he  was 
appointed  one  of  the  counsellors  of  the  city,  and  was 
entrusted  with  an  important  share  in  the  management  of 
its  business.  In  this  capacity  it  was  necessary  for  him  to 
make  many  a  journey  to  the  Diet  or  to  the  imperial  court, 
and  he  soon  became  a  favourite  with  the  Emperor  Maxi- 
milian, who  rejoiced  in  converse  with  a  mind  as  versatile 
I  as  his  own.  No  German  so  nearly  approached  the  many- 
j  sided  culture  of  the  leading  Italian  Humanists  as  did  this 
'  citizen  of  Niirnberg.  On  the  other  hand,  he  possessed  a 
fund  of  earnestness  which  no  Italian  seems  to  have 
possessed.  He  was  deeply  anxious  about  reformation  in 
Church  and  State,  and  after  the  Leipzig  disputation  had 
shown  that  Luther's  quarrel  with  the  Pope  was  no  mere 
monkish  dispute,  but  went  to  the  roots  of  things,  he  was  a 
sedate  supporter  of  the  Eeformation  in  its  earlier  stages. 
His  sisters  Charitas  and  Clara,  both  learned  ladies,  were 
nuns  in  the  Convent  of  St.  Clara  at  Nlirnberg.  The  elder, 
who  was  the  abbess  of  her  convent,  has  left  an  interesting 
collection  of  letters,  from  which  it  seems  probable  that  she 
had  great  influence  over  her  brother,  and  prevented  him 
from  joining  the  Lutheran  Church  after  it  had  finally 
separated  from  the  Eoman  obedience. 

Pirkheimer  gave  the  time  which  was  not  occupied  with 
public  affairs  to  learning  and  intercourse   with  scholar? 


62  THE   RENAISSANCE 

His  house  was  a  palace  filled  with  objects  of  art.  His 
library,  well  stocked  with  MSS.  and  books,  was  open  to 
every  student  who  came  with  an  introduction  to  its  owner. 
At  his  banquets,  which  were  famous,  he  delighted  to 
assemble  round  his  table  the  most  distinguished  men  of  the 
day.  He  was  quite  at  home  in  Greek,  and  made  transla- 
tions from  the  works  of  Plato,  Xenophon,  Plutarch,  and 
Lucian  into  Latin  or  German.  The  description  which  he 
gives,  in  his  familiar  letters  to  his  sisters  and  intimate 
friends,  of  his  life  on  his  brother-in-law's  country  estate  is 
like  a  picture  of  the  habits  of  a  Koman  patrician  of  the 
fifth  century  in  Gaul.  The  morning  was  spent  in  study, 
in  reading  Plato  or  Cicero ;  and  in  the  afternoon,  if  the 
gout  chanced  to  keep  him  indoors,  he  watched  from  his 
windows  the  country  people  in  the  fields,  or  the  sportsman 
and  the  fisher  at  their  occupations.  He  was  fond  of  enter- 
taining visitors  from  the  neighbourhood.  Sometimes  he 
gathered  round  him  his  upper  servants  or  his  tenants,  with 
their  wives  and  families.  The  evening  was  usually  devoted 
to  the  study  of  history  and  archaeology,  in  both  of  which 
he  was  greatly  interested.  He  was  in  the  habit  of  sitting 
up  late  at  night,  and  when  the  sky  was  clear  he  followed 
the  motions  of  the  planets  with  a  telescope ;  for,  like  many 
others  in  that  age,  he  had  faith  in  astrology,  and  believed 
that  he  could  read  future  events  and  the  destinies  of 
nations  in  the  courses  of  the  wandering  stars. 

In  all  those  civic  circles,  poets  and  artists  were  found 
as  members — Hans  Holbein  at  Augsburg ;  Albert  Diirer, 
with  Hans  Sebaldus  Beham,  at  Niirnberg.  The  contem- 
porary Itahan  painters,  when  they  ceased  to  select  their 
subjects  from  Scripture  or  from  the  Lives  of  the  Saints., 
turned  instinctively  to  depict  scenes  from  the  ancien* 
pagan  mythology.  The  German  artists  strayed  elsewhere 
They  turned  for  subjects  to  the  common  life  of  the  people 
But  the  change  was  gradual.  The  Virgin  ceased  to  be  the 
Queen  of  Heaven  and  became  the  purest  type  of  homel) 
human  motherhood,  and  the  attendant  angeis,  sportive 
children  plucking  flowers,  fondling  animals,  playing  with 


HUMANISM   IN   THE   UNIVERSITIES  63 

fruit  In  Lucas  Cranach's  "  Eest  on  the  Flight  to  Egypt " 
two  cherubs  have  climbed  a  tree  to  rob  a  bird's  nest,  and 
the  parent  birds  are  screaming  at  them  from  the  branches. 
In  one  of  Albert  Diirer's  representations  of  the  Holy 
Family,  the  Virgin  and  Child  are  seated  in  the  middle  of 
a  farmyard,  surrounded  by  all  kinds  of  rural  accessories. 
Then  German  art  plunged  boldly  into  the  delineation  of  the 
ordinary  commonplace  life — knights  and  tournaments,  mer- 
chant trains,  street  scenes,  pictures  of  peasant  life,  and 
especially  of  peasant  dances,  university  and  school  scenes, 
pictures  of  the  camp  and  of  troops  on  the  march.  The 
coming  revolution  in  religion  was  already  proclaiming  that 
all  human  life,  even  the  most  commonplace,  could  be 
sacred ;  and  contemporary  art  discovered  the  picturesque 
in  the  ordinary  life  of  the  people — in  the  castles  of  the 
nobles,  in  the  markets  of  the  cities,  and  in  the  villages  of  the 
peasants. 

§  8.  Humanism  in  the  Universities. 

The  New  Learning  made  its  way  gradually  into  the 
Universities.  Classical  scholars  were  invited  to  lecture  or 
settle  as  private  teachers  in  university  towns,  and  the 
students  read  Cicero  and  Virgil,  Horace  and  Propertius, 
Livy  and  Sallust,  Plautus  and  Terence.  One  of  the  earliest 
signs  of  the  growing  Humanist  feeling  appeared  in  changes 
in  one  of  the  favourite  diversions  of  German  students.  In 
all  the  mediaeval  Universities  at  carnival  time  the  students 
got  up  and  performed  plays.  The  subjects  were  almost  in- 
variably taken  from  the  Scriptures  or  from  the  Apocrypha. 
Chaucer  says  of  an  Oxford  student,  that 

**  Sometimes  to  shew  his  lightnesse  and  his  mastereyt 
He  played  Herod  on  a  gallows  high." 

At  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  subjects  changed, 
and  students'  plays  were  either  reproductions  from  Plautus 
or  Terence,  or  original  compositions  representing  the 
common  life  of  the  time. 

The  legal  recognition  of  Humanism  within  a  University 


64  THE   RENAISSANCB 

commonly  showed  itself  in  the  institution  of  a  lectureship 
of  Poetry  or  Oratory — for  the  German  Humanists  were 
commonly  known  as  the  "  Poets."  Freiburg  established  a 
chair  of  Poetry  in  1471,  and  Basel  in  1474;  in  Tubingen 
the  stipend  for  an  Orator  was  legally  sanctioned  in  1481, 
and  Conrad  Celtis  was  appointed  to  a  chair  of  Poetry  and 
Eloquence  in  1492. 

Erfurt,  however,  was  generally  regarded  as  the  special 
nursery  of  German  university  Humanism  ever  since  Peter 
Luders  had  taught  there  in  1460.  From  that  date 
the  University  never  lacked  Humanist  teachers,  and  a 
Humanist  circle  had  gradually  grown  up  among  the  suc- 
cessive generations  of  students.  The  permanent  chief  of 
this  circle  was  a  German  scholar,  whose  name  was  Conrad 
Mut  (Mudt,  Mutta,  and  Mutti  are  variations),  who  Latinised 
his  name  into  Mutianus,  and  added  Kufus  because  he  was 
red-haired.  This  Mutianus  Eufus  was  in  many  respects 
a  typical  German  Humanist.  He  was  born  in  1472  at 
Homburg  in  Hesse,  had  studied  at  Deventer  under  Alexander 
Hegius,  had  attended  the  University  of  Erfurt,  and  had 
then  gone  to  Italy  to  study  law  and  the  New  Learning. 
He  became  a  Doctor  of  Laws  of  Bologna,  made  friends 
among  many  of  the  distinguished  Italian  Humanists,  and 
had  gained  many  patrons  among  the  cardinals  in  Kome. 
He  finally  settled  in  Gotha,  where  he  had  received  a 
canonry  in  the  Church.  He  did  not  win  any  distinction 
as  an  author,  but  has  left  behind  him  an  interesting 
collection  of  letters.  His  great  delight  was  to  gather 
round  him  promising  young  students  belonging  to  the 
University  of  Erfurt,  to  superintend  their  reading,  and  to 
advise  them  in  all  literary  matters.  While  in  Italy  he 
had  become  acquainted  with  Pico  della  Mirandola,  and  had 
adopted  the  conception  of  combining  Platonism  and  Christi- 
anity in  an  eclectic  mysticism,  which  was  to  be  the  esoteric 
Christianity  for  thinkers  and  educated  men,  while  the 
popular  Christianity,  with  its  superstitions,  was  needed  for 
the  common  herd.  Christianity,  he  taught,  had  its  begin- 
nings long  before  the  historical  advent  of  our  Lord.    "  The 


HUMANISM    IN    THE    UNIVERSITIES  65 

true  Christ,"  he  said,  "  was  not  a  man,  but  the  Wisdom  of 
God ;  He  was  the  Son  of  God,  and  is  equally  imparted  to 
the  Jews,  the  Greeks,  and  the  Germans."  ^  "  The  true  Christ 
is  not  a  nicin,  but  spirit  and  soul,  which  do  not  manifest 
themselves  in  outward  appearance,  and  are  not  to  be  touched 
or  seized  l)y  the  hands."  ^  "  The  law  of  God,"  he  said  in 
another  place,  "  which  enlightens  the  soul,  has  two  heads : 
to  love  God,  and  to  love  one's  neighbour  as  one's  self.  This 
law  makes  us  partakers  of  Heaven.  It  is  a  natural  law ; 
not  hewn  in  stone,  as  was  the  law  of  Moses ;  not  carved  in 
bronze,  as  was  that  of  the  Eomans ;  not  written  on  parch- 
ment or  paper,  but  implanted  in  our  hearts  by  the  highest 
Teacher."  **  Whoever  has  eaten  in  pious  manner  this  memor- 
able and  saving  Eucharist,  has  done  something  divine.  For 
the  true  Body  of  Christ  is  peace  and  concord,  and  there 
is  no  holier  Host  than  neighbourly  love/'*  He  refused  to 
believe  in  the  miraculous,  and  held  that  the  Scriptures  were 
full  of  fables,  meant,  like  those  of  ^sop,  to  teach  moral 
truths.  He  asserted  that  he  had  devoted  himself  to  "  God, 
the  saints,  and  the  study  of  all  antiquity  " ;  and  the  result 
was  expressed  in  the  following  quotation  from  a  letter  to 
Urban  (1505),  one  of  his  friends  and  pupils  at  Erfurt: 
"  There  is  but  one  god  and  one  goddess ;  but  there  are 
many  forms  and  many  names — Jupiter,  Sol,  Apollo,  Moses, 
Christ,  Luna,  Ceres,  Proserpina,  Tellus,  Mary.  But  do  not 
spread  it  abroad ;  we  must  keep  silence  on  these  Eleusinian 
mysteries.  In  religious  matters  we  must  employ  fables 
and  enigmas  as  a  veil.  Thou  who  hast  the  grace  of 
Jupiter,  the  best  and  greatest  God,  shouldst  in  secret  despise 
the  little  gods.  When  I  say  Jupiter,  I  mean  Christ  and 
the  true  God.  But  enough  of  these  things,  which  are  too 
high  for  us."  *  Such  a  man  looked  with  contempt  on  the 
Church  of  his  age,  and  lashed  it  with  his  scorn.  "  I  do 
not  revere  the  coat  or  the  beard  of  Christ ;  I  revere  the 
true  and  living  God,  who  has  neither  beard  nor  coat."*  In 
private  he  denounced  the  fasts  of  the  Church,  confession, 

*  Krause,  Briefwechsel  des  Mutianus  Rufus  (Cassel,  1855),  p.  32. 

•  Ihid.  p.  94.        » Ihid.  p.  93.        *  Ibid.  p.  28.         » Ibid,  p.  427. 

5* 


66  THE   RENAISSANCE 

and  masses  for  the  dead,  and  called  the  begging  friars 
"  cowled  monsters."  He  says  sarcastically  of  the  Christi- 
anity of  his  times :  "  We  mean  by  faith  not  the  conformity 
of  what  we  say  with  fact,  but  an  opinion  about  divine 
things  founded  on  credulity  and  a  persuasion  which  seeks 
after  profit.  Such  is  its  power  that  it  is  commonly 
believed  that  to  us  were  given  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  Whoever,  therefore,  despises  our  keys,  shall  feel 
our  nails  and  our  clubs  (quisquis  claves  contemserit  clavum 
et  clavam  sentiei).  We  have  taken  from  the  breast  of 
Serapis  a  magical  stamp  to  which  Jesus  of  Galilee  has 
given  authority.  With  that  figure  we  put  our  foes  to 
flight,  we  cozen  money,  we  consecrate  God,  we  shake  hell, 
and  we  work  miracles ;  whether  we  be  heavenly  minded  or 
earthly  minded  makes  no  matter,  provided  we  sit  happily 
at  the  banquet  of  Jupiter."  ^  But  he  did  not  wish  to 
revolt  from  the  external  authority  of  the  Church  of  the 
day.  "  He  is  impious  who  wishes  to  know  more  than  the 
Church.  We  bear  on  our  forehead,"  he  says,  "  the  seal  of 
the  Cross,  the  standard  of  our  King.  Let  us  not  be  deserters  ; 
let  nothing  base  be  found  in  our  camp."  ^  The  authority 
which  the  Humanists  revolted  against  was  merely  intellec- 
tual, as  was  the  freedom  they  fought  for.  It  did  not 
belong  to  their  mission  to  proclaim  a  spiritual  freedom  or 
to  free  the  common  man  from  his  slavish  fear  of  the 
mediaeval  priesthood;  and  this  made  an  impassable  gulf 
between  their  aspirations  and  those  of  Luther  and  the 
real  leaders  of  the  Keformation  movement.' 

The  Erfurt  circle  of  Humanists  had  for  members 
Heinrich  Urban,  to  whom  many  of  the  letters  of  Mutianus 
were  addressed,  Petreius  Alperbach,  who  won  the  title  of 
"  mocker  of  gods  and  men "  (derisor  deorum  et  hominum), 
Johann  Jaeger  of  Dornheim  (Crotus  Eubeanus),  George 
Burkhardt  from  Spalt  (Spalatinus),  Henry  and  Peter 
Eberach.     Eoban  of  Hesse  (Helius  Eobanus  Hessus),  the 

*  Krause,  Briefwechsel  des  Mutianus  Rnfus  (Cassel,  1855),  p.  79. 

2  Ihid.  p.  175  :   "  Non  sit  vobiscum  ia  castris  (nostris)  ulla  turpitude. * 

•  Ibid, ;  cf.  especially  Letter  to  Urban,  pp.  352,  353,  and  pp.  153,  190. 


REUCHLIN  67 

most  gifted  of  them  all,  and  the  hardest  drinker,  joined 
the  circle  in  1494. 

Similar  university  circles  were  formed  elsewhere:  at 
Basel,  where  Heinrich  Loriti  from  Glarus  (Glareanus),  and 
afterwards  Erasmus,  were  the  attractions ;  at  Tiibingen, 
where  Heinrich  Bebel,  author  of  the  Facetice,  encouraged 
his  younger  friends  to  study  history ;  and  even  at  Koln, 
where  Hermann  von  Busch,  a  pupil  of  Deventer,  and 
Ortuin  Gratius,  afterwards  the  butt  of  the  authors  of  the 
Epistolce  ohscurorum  virorurriy  were  looked  upon  as  leaders 
full  of  the  New  Learning. 

As  in  Italy  Popes  and  cardinals  patronised  the  leaders 
of  the  Kenaissance,  so  in  Germany  the  Emperor  and  some 
princes  gave  their  protection  to  Humanism.  To  German 
scholars,  who  were  at  the  head  of  the  new  movement, 
Maximilian  seemed  to  be  an  ideal  ruler.  His  coffers  no 
doubt  were  almost  always  empty,  and  he  had  not  lucrative 
posts  at  his  command  to  bestow  upon  them ;  the  position 
of  court  poet  given  to  Conrad  Celtes  and  afterwards  to 
Ulrich  von  Hutten  brought  little  except  coronation  in 
presence  of  the  imperial  court  with  a  tastefully  woven 
laurel  crown ;  ^  but  the  character  of  Maximilian  attracted 
peasantry  and  scholars  alike.  His  romanticism,  his  abiding 
youthfulness,  his  amazing  intellectual  versatihty,  his  knight- 
errantry,  and  his  sympathy  fascinated  them.  Maximilian 
lives  in  the  folk-song  of  Germany  as  no  other  ruler  does. 
The  scheme  of  education  sung  in  the  Weisskunig,  and 
illustrated  by  Hans  Burgmaier,  entitled  him  to  the  name 
"  the  Humanist  Emperor." 

§  9.  RevMin. 

I  The  German  Humanists,  whether  belonging  to  the 
learned  societies  of  the  cities  or  to  the  groups  in  the  Uni- 
versities, were   too  full   of   individuality    to    present    the 

*  Geiger  in  his  Renaissance  und  Humanismus  in  Italien  und  Deutschland 
(Berlin,  1882,  Oncken's  Series)  has  given  a  picture  of  the  insignia  of  the 
poet  laureate  on  p.  457,  and  one  of  Conrad  Celtes  crowned  on  p.  469, 


68  THE  RBNAISSANCB 

appearance  of  a  body  of  men  leagued  together  under  the 
impulse  of  a  common  aim.  The  Erfurt  band  of  scholars 
was  called  "  the  Mutianic  Host " ;  but  the  partisans  of  the 
New  Learning  could  scarcely  be  said  to  form  a  solid 
phalanx.  Something  served,  however,  to  bring  them  all,  . 
together.     This  was  the  persecution  of  Reuchlin.  /  ^  ^  ^ 

Johann  Eeuchlin  (1455-1522),  like  Erasmus  after 
him,  was  very  much  a  man  by  himself.  He  entered  history 
at  first  dramatically  enough.  A  party  of  Italian  Humanists 
had  met  in  the  house  of  John  Argyropoulos  in  Eome  in 
1483.  Among  them  was  a  young  unknown  German,  who 
had  newly  arrived  with  letters  of  introduction  to  the  host. 
He  had  come,  he  explained,  to  study  Greek.  Argyropoulos 
gave  him  a  Thucydides  and  asked  him  to  construe  a  page 
or  two  into  Latin.  Eeuchlin  construed  with  such  ease  and 
elegance,  that  the  company  exclaimed  that  Greece  had 
flown  across  the  Alps  to  settle  in  Germany.  The  young 
German  spent  some  years  in  Italy,  enjoying  the  friendship 
of  the  foremost  Italian  scholars.  He  was  an  ardent 
student  of  the  New  Learning,  and  on  his  return  was  the 
first  to  make  Greek  thoroughly  popular  in  Germany.  But 
he  was  a  still  more  ardent  student  of  Hebrew,  and  it  may 
almost  be  said  of  him  that  he  introduced  that  ancient 
language  to  the  peoples  of  Europe.  His  De  Rudimentis 
Hebraicis  (1506),  a  grammar  and  dictionary  in  one,  was 
the  first  book  of  its  kind.  His  interest  in  the  language 
was  more  than  that  of  a  student.  He  believed  that 
Hebrew  was  not  only  the  most  ancient,  but  the  holiest  of 
languages.  God  had  spoken  in  it.  He  had  revealed  Him- 
self to  men  not  merely  in  the  Hebrew  writings  of  the  Old 
Testament,  but  had  also  imparted,  through  angels  and  other 
divine  messengers,  a  hidden  wisdom  which  has  been  pre- 
served in  ancient  Hebrew  writings  outside  of  the  Scriptures, 
— a  wisdom  known  to  Adam,  to  Noah,  and  to  the  Patri- 
archs. He  expounded  his  strange  mystical  theosophy  in 
a  curious  little  book,  De  Verho  Mirifico  (1494),  full  of  out- 
of-the-way  learning,  and  finding  sublime  mysteries  in  the 
very  points  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.     Perhaps  his  cen- 


REUCHLIN  69 

tral  thought  is  expressed  in  tlie  sentence,  "  God  is  love ; 
man  is  hope ;  the  bond  between  them  is  faith.  .  .  .  God 
and  man  may  be  so  combined  in  an  indescribable  union 
that  the  human  God  and  the  divine  man  may  be  con- 
sidered as  one  being."  ^  The  book  is  a  Symposium  where 
Sidonius,  Baruch,  and  Capnion  (Eeuchlin)  hold  prolonged 
discourse  with  each  other. 

Eeuchlin  was  fifty -four  years  of  age  when  a  controversy 
began  which  gradually  divided  the  scholars  of  Germany 
into  two  camps,  and  banded  the  Humanists  into  one  party 
fighting  in  defence  of  free  inquiry. 

John  Pfefferkorn  (1469-1522),  born  a  Jew  and  con- 
verted to  Christianity  (1505),  animated  with  the  zeal  of 
a  convert  to  bring  the  Jews  wholesale  to  Christianity, 
and  perhaps  stimulated  by  the  Dominicans  of  Koln 
(Cologne),  with  whom  he  was  closely  associated,  conceived 
an  idea  that  his  former  co-religionists  might  be  induced  to 
accept  Christianity  if  all  theu'  peculiar  books,  the  Old 
Testament  excepted,  were  confiscated.  During  the  earlier 
Middle  Ages  the  Jews  had  been  continually  persecuted, 
and  their  persecution  had  always  been  popular ;  but  the 
fifteenth  century  had  been  a  period  of  comparative  rest 
for  them ;  they  had  bought  the  imperial  protection,  and 
their  services  as  physicians  had  been  gratefully  recognised 
in  Frankfurt  and  many  other  cities.^  Still  the  popular 
hatred  against  them  as  usurers  remained,  and  manifested 
itself  in  every  time  of  social  upheaval.  It  was  always 
easy  to  arouse  the  slumbering  antipathy. 

Pfefferkorn  had  written  four  books  against  the  Jews 
(Judenspiegel,  Judenheichte,  Osternhuch,  Judenfeind)  in  the 
years  1507-1509,  in  which  he  had  suggested  that  the 
Jews  should  be  forbidden  to  practise  usury,  that  they 
should  be  compelled  to  listen  to  sermons,  and  that  their 
Hebrew  books  should  be  confiscated.  He  actually  got  a 
mandate  from  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  probably  through 
some  corrupt  secretary,  empowering  him  to  seize  upon  all 

»  De  Ferho  MiHfico  (ed.  1552),  p.  71. 

■  Kriegk,  Deutsches  BUrgerthum  im  Mittelalter,  pp.  1  ff.,  88-58. 


70  THE   RENAISSANCE 

such  books.  He  began  bis  work  in  the  Rhineland,  and 
bad  already  confiscated  tbe  books  of  many  Jews,  when,  in 
the  summer  of  1509,  be  came  to  Eeucblin  and  requested 
bis  aid.  Tbe  scbolar  not  only  refused,  but  pointed  out 
some  irregularities  in  tbe  imperial  mandate.  Tbe  doubtful 
legality  of  tbe  imperial  order  bad  also  attracted  tbe  attention 
of  Uriel,  tbe  Arcbbisbop  of  Mainz,  wbo  forbade  bis  clergy 
from  rendering  Pfefferkorn  any  assistance. 

Upon  tbis  Pfefferkorn  and  tbe  Dominicans  again  applied 
to  tbe  Emperor,  got  a  second  mandate,  tben  a  tbird,  wbicb 
was  tbe  important  one.  It  left  tbe  matter  in  tbe  bands 
of  tbe  Arcbbisbop  of  Mainz,  wbo  was  to  collect  evidence 
on  the  subject  of  Jewish  books.  He  was  to  ask  the  opinions 
of  Eeucblin,  of  Victor  von  Karben  (1422—1515),  who  bad 
been  a  Jew  but  was  tben  a  Cbi;istian  priest,  of  James 
Hochstratten  (14G 0—1527),  a  Dominican  and  Inquisitor 
to  tbe  diocese  of  Koln,  a  strong  foe  to  Humanism,  and  of 
the  Universities  of  Heidelberg,  Erfurt,  Koln,  and  Mainz. 
They  were  to  write  out  their  opinions  and  send  them  to 
Pfefferkorn,  who  was  to  present  them  to  the  Emperor. 
Eeuchhn  was  accordingly  asked  by  the  Archbishop  to 
advise  the  Emperor  "  whether  it  would  be  praiseworthy 
and  beneficial  to  our  holy  religion  to  destroy  such  books 
as  the  Jews  used,  excepting  only  the  books  of  the  Ten 
Commandments  of  Moses,  the  Proph-.-ts,  and  tbe  Psalter 
of  the  Old  Testament  ?  "  Eeuchlin's  answer  was  ready  by 
November  1510.  He  went  into  the  matter  very  thoroughly 
and  impartially.  He  divided  the  books  of  the  Jews  into 
several  classes,  and  gave  bis  opinion  on  each.  It  was  out 
of  tbe  question  to  destroy  the  Old  Testament.  Tbe  Talmud 
was  a  collection  of  expositions  of  the  Jewish  law  at  various 
periods;  no  one  could  express  an  opinion  about  it  unless 
he  had  read  it  through ;  Eeucblin  had  only  been  able  to 
procure  portions ;  judging  from  these,  it  was  likely  that 
the  book  did  contain  many  things  contrary  to  Christianity, 
but  that  was  the  nature  of  tbe  Jewish  religion  which  was 
protected  by  law ;  it  did  contain  many  good  things,  and 
ought  not  to  be  destroyed.     The  Cabala  was,  according  to 


REUCHLIN  71 

Beuchlin,  a  very  precious  book,  which  assured  ns  as  no 
other  did  of  the  divinity  of  Christ,  and  ought  to  be  care- 
fully preserved.  Tlie  Jews  had  various  commentaries  on 
the  books  of  the  Old  Testament  which  were  very  useful 
to  enable  Christian  scholars  to  understand  them  rightly, 
and  they  ought  not  to  be  destroyed.  They  had  also  ser- 
mons and  ceremonial  books  belonging  to  their  religion 
which  had  been  guaranteed  by  imperial  law.  They  had 
books  on  arts  and  sciences  which  ought  to  be  destroyed 
only  in  so  far  as  they  taught  such  forbidden  arts  as  magic. 
Lastly,  there  were  books  of  poetry  and  fables,  and  some  of 
them  might  contain  insults  to  Christ,  the  Virgin,  and  the 
Apostles,  and  might  deserve  burning,  but  not  without 
careful  and  competent  examination.  He  added  that  the 
best  way  to  deal  with  the  Jews  w^as  not  to  burn  their 
books,  but  to  engage  in  reasonable,  gentle,  and  kindly 
discussion. 

Eeuchlin's  opinion  stood  alone  :  all  the  other  authorities 
suggested  the  burning  of  Jewish  books,  and  the  University 
of  Mainz  would  not  exempt  the  Old  Testament  until  it 
had  been  shown  that  it  had  not  been  tampered  with  by 
Jewish  zealots. 

The  temperate  and  scholarly  answer  of  Eeuchlin  was 
made  a  charge  against  him.  The  controversy  which  fol- 
lowed, and  which  lasted  for  six  weary  years,  was  so  managed 
by  the  Dominicans,  that  Eeuchlin,  a  Humanist  and  a  lay- 
man, was  made  to  appear  as  defying  the  theologians  of  the 
Church  on  a  point  of  theology.  Like  all  mediaeval  con- 
troversies, it  was  conducted  with  great  bitterness  and  no 
lack  of  invective,  frequently  coarse  enough.  The  Humanists 
saw,  however,  that  it  was  the  case  of  a  scholar  defending 
genuine  scholarship  against  obscurantists,  and,  after  a  fruit- 
less endeavour  to  get  Erasmus  to  lead  them,  they  joined  in 
a  common  attack.  Artists  also  lent  their  aid.  In  one 
contemporary  engraving,  Eeuchlin  is  seated  in  a  car  decked 
with  laurels,  and  is  in  the  act  of  entering  his  native  town 
of  Pforzheim.  The  Kcln  theologians  march  in  chains  before 
the  car ;  Pfefferkorn  lies  on  the  ground  with  an  executionei 


72  THE    RENAISSANCE 

ready  to  decapitate  him ;  citizens  and  their  wives  in  gala 
costume  await  the  hero,  and  the  town's  musicians  salute 
him  with  triumphant  melody ;  while  one  worthy  burgher 
manifests  his  sympathy  by  throwing  a  monk  out  of  a 
window.  The  other  side  of  the  controversy  is  represented 
by  a  rough  woodcut,  in  which  Pfefferkorn  is  seen  break- 
ing the  chair  of  scholarship  in  which  a  double-tongued 
Eeuchlin  is  sitting.^  The  most  notable  contribution  to 
the  dispute,  however,  was  the  publication  of  the  famous 
EpistolcB  Ohscurorum  Virorum,  inseparably  connected  with 
the  name  of  Ulrich  von  Hutten. 

§  10.  TTis  "Epistolce  Ohscurorum  Virorum.** 

While  the  controversy  was  raging  (1514),  Eeuchlin 
had  collected  a  series  of  testimonies  to  his  scholarship,  and 
had  published  them  under  the  title  of  Letters  from  Eminent 
Men^  This  suggested  to  some  young  Humanist  the  idea  of 
a  collection  of  letters  in  which  the  obscurantists  could  be 
seen  exposing  themselves  and  their  unutterable  folly  under 
the  parodied  title  of  Upistolce  Ohscurorum  Virorum.  The 
book  bears  the  same  relation  to  the  scholastic  disputations 
of  the  later  fifteenth  century  that  Don  Quixote  does  to  the 
romances  of  mediaeval  chivalry.  It  is  a  farrago  of  questions 
on  grammar,  etymology,  graduation  precedence,  life  in  a 
country  parsonage,  and  scholastic  casuistry.  Magister 
Henricus  Schaffsmulius  writes  from  Eome  that  he  went 
one  Friday  morning  to  breakfast  in  the  Campo  dei  Fiori, 

*  A  chronicle  and  the  details  of  the  Reuchlin  controversy  are  to  be  found 
in  the  second  volume  of  the  supplement  to  Booking's  edition  of  the  works  of 
Ulrich  von  Hutten,  Good  accounts  are  to  be  found  in  Geiger's  Henaissanc 
und  ffumanismus  in  Italien  und  Deutschland,  pp.  510  ff.  (Berlin,  1882, 
Oncken's  Series) ;  in  Strauss'  Ulrich  von  Hutten :  His  Life  and  Times,  pp. 
100-140  (English  translation  by  Mrs.  Sturge,  London,  1874) ;  and  in 
Creighton's  History  of  the  Papacy  from  the  Great  Schism  to  the  Sack  of  Rome ^ 
vol.  vi.  pp.  37  ff.  (London,  1897). 

*  The  second  edition  is  entitled  lllustrium  Virorum  Epistolce  Eebraiece^ 
Qrcecoe,  et  Latince  ad  Jo.  Reuchlinum ;  the  first  edition  was  entitled 
Clarorum  Virorum,  etc.  The  letters  are  forty-three  in  number — the  first 
being  from  Erasmus,  "the  most  learned  man  of  the  age," 


EPISTOLiE   OBSCURORUM    VIRORUM  73 

ordered  an  egg,  which  on  being  opened  contained  a  chidcen 
"Quick,"  said  his  companion,  "swallow  it,  or  the  landloitl  '7 
will  charge  the  chicken  in  the  bill."  He  obeyed,  forgetting 
that  the  day  was  Friday,  on  which  no  flesh  could  be  eaten 
lawfully.  In  his  perplexity  he  consulted  one  theologian, 
who  told  him  to  keep  his  mind  at  rest,  for  an  embryo 
chicken  within  an  egg  was  like  the  worms  or  maggots  in 
fruit  and  cheese,  which  men  can  swallow  without  harm  to 
their  souls  even  in  Lent.  But  another,  equally  learned,  had 
informed  him  that  maggots  in  cheese  and  worms  in  fruit 
were  to  be  classed  as  fish,  which  everyone  could  eat 
lawfully  on  fast  days,  but  that  an  embryo  chicken  was 
quite  another  thing — it  was  flesh.  Would  the  learned 
Magister  Ortuin,  who  knew  everything,  decide  for  him  and 
relieve  his  burdened  conscience  ?  The  writers  send  to  their 
dear  Magister  Ortuin  short  Latin  poems  of  which  they 
are  modestly  proud.  They  confess  that  their  verses  do 
not  scan ;  but  that  matters  little.  The  writers  of  secular 
verse  must  be  attentive  to  such  things ;  but  their  poems, 
which  relate  the  lives  and  deeds  of  the  saints,  do  not  need 
such  refinements.  The  writers  confess  that  at  times  their 
lives  are  not  what  they  ought  to  be;  but  Solomon  and 
Samson  were  not  perfect ;  and  they  have  too  much  Christian 
humility  to  wish  to  excel  such  honoured  Christian  saints. 
The  letters  contain  a  good  deal  of  gossip  about  the  wicked- 
ness of  the  poets  (Humanists).  These  evil  men  have  been 
speaking  very  disrespectfully  about  the  Holy  Coat  at  Trier 
(Treves) ;  they  have  said  that  the  Blessed  Eelics  of  the 
Threje  _Kings  at  Koln  are  the  bones  of  three  Westphalian 
peasants.  The  correspondents  exchange  confidences  about 
sermons  they  dislike.  One  preacher,  who  spoke  with  un- 
seemly earnestness,  had  delivered  a  plain  sermon  without 
any  learned  syllogisms  or  intricate  theological  reasoning ; 
he  had  spoken  simply  about  Christ  and  His  salvation, 
and  the  strange  thing  was  that  the  people  seemed  to  listen 
to  him  eagerly:  such  preaching  ought  to  be  forbidden. 
Allusions  to  Eeuchlin  and  his  trial  are  scattered  all  through 
the  letters,  and  the  writers  reveal  artlessly  their  hopes  and 


74  THE    RENAISSANCE 

Tears  about  the  result.  It  is  possible,  one  laments,  that  the 
rascal  may  get  off  after  all :  the  writer  hears  that  worthy 
Inquisitor  Hochstratten's  money  is  almost  exhausted,  and 
chat  he  has  scarcely  enough  left  for  the  necessary  bribery 
at  Eome ;  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  he  will  get  a  further 
supply.  It  is  quite  impossible  to  translate  the  epistles 
and  retain  the  original  flavour  of  the  language, — a  mixture 
of  ecclesiastical  phrases,  vernacular  idioms  and  words,  and 
the  worst  mediaeval  Latin.  Of  course,  the  letters  contain 
much  that  is  very  objectionable :  they  attack  the  character 
of  men,  and  even  of  women ;  but  that  was  an  ordinary 
feature  of  the  Humanism  of  the  times.  They  were  un- 
doubtedly successful  in  covering  the  opponents  of  Eeuchlin 
with  ridicule,  more  especially  when  some  of  the  obscurantists 
failed  to  see  the  satire,  and  looked  upon  the  letters  as 
genuine  accounts  of  the  views  they  sympathised  with. 
Some  of  the  mendicant  friars  in  England  welcomed  a  book 
against  Eeuchlin,  and  a  Dominican  prior  in  Brabant  bought 
several  copies  to  send  to  his  superiors. 

The  authorship  of  these  famous  letters  is  not  thoroughly 
known  ;  probably  several  Humanist  pens  were  at  work.  It 
is  generally  admitted  that  they  came  from  the  Humanist 
circle  at  Erfurt,  and  that  the  man  who  planned  the  book 
and  wrote  most  of  the  letters  was  John  Jaeger  of  Dornheim 
(Crotus  Eubeanus).  They  were  long  ascribed  to  Ulrich 
von  Hutten ;  some  of  the  letters  may  have  come  from 
his  pen — one  did  certainly.  These  Epistolce  Ohscurorum 
Virorum,  when  compared  with  the  Uncommm  Morice 
of  Erasmus,  show  how  immeasurably  inferior  the  ordi- 
nary German  Humanist  was  to  the  scholar  of  the  Low 
Countries.^ 

*  The  best  edition  of  the  Epistolce  Ohscurorum  Virorum  is  to  be  found  in 
vol.  i.  of  the  Supplement  to  Bockiag's  Ulrici  Ilutteni  Opera,  5  vols.,  with 
2  vols,  of  Supplement  (Leipzig,  1864,  1869).  The  hist  edition  was  published 
in  1515,  and  consisted  of  forty-one  letters  ;  the  second,  in  1516,  contained 
the  same  number ;  in  the  third  edition  an  appendix  of  seven  additional 
letters  was  added.  In  1517  a  second  part  appeared  containing  sixty-two 
letters,  and  an  appendix  of  eight  letters  was  added  to  the  second  edition 
of  the  second  part. 


ULRICH    VON   HUTTEN  75 

§  11.    Ulrich  von  Hutttn, 

I  Ulrich  von  Hutten,^  the  stormy  petrel  of  the  Reforma- 
tion period  in  Germany,  was  a  member  of  one  of  the  oldest 
families  of  the  Franconian  nobles — a  fierce,  lawless,  tur- 
bulent nobility.  The  old  hot  family  blood  coursed  through 
his  veins,  and  accounts  for  much  in  his  adventurous  career. 
He  was  the  eldest  son,  but  his  frail  body  and  sickly  dis- 
position marked  him  out  in  his  father's  eyes  for  a  clerical 
life.  He  was  sent  at  the  age  of  eleven  to  the  ancient 
monastery  of  Fulda,  where  his  precocity  in  all  kinds  of 
intellectual  work  seemed  to  presage  a  distinguished  position 
if  he  remained  true  to  the  calling  to  which  his  father  had 
destined  him.  The  boy,  however,  soon  found  that  he  had 
no  vocation  for  the  Church,  and  that,  while  he  was  keenly 
interested  in  all  manner  of  studies,  he  detested  the  scholastic 
theology.  He  appealed  to  his  father,  told  him  how  he 
hated  the  thought  of  a  clerical  life,  and  asked  him  to  be 
permitted  to  look  forward  to  the  career  of  a  scholar  and  a 
man  of  letters.  The  old  Franconian  knight  was  as  hard  as 
men  of  his  class  usually  were.  He  promised  Ulrich  that 
he  could  take  as  much  time  as  he  liked  to  educate  himself, 
but  that  in  the  end  he  was  to  enter  the  Church.  Upon 
this,  Ulrich,  an  obstinate  chip  of  an  obstinate  block,  de- 
termined to  make  his  escape  from  the  monastery  and 
follow  his  own  life.  How  he  managed  it  is  unknown. 
He  fell  in  with  John  Jaeger  of  Dornheim,  and  the  two 
wandered,  German  student  fashion,  from  University  to 
University;  they  were  at  Koln  together,  then  at  Erfurt. 
The  elder  Hutten  refused  to  assist  his  son  in  any  way. 
How  the  young  student  maintained  himself  no  one  knows. 
He  had  wretched  health ;  he  was  at  least  twice  robbed  and 
lialf-murdered  by  ruffians  as  he  tramped  along  the  unsafe 
highways ;  but  his  indomitable  purpose  to  live  the  life  of  a 
literary  man  or  to  die  sustained  him.  At  last  family  friends 
patched  up  a  half-heai  ted  reconciliation  between  father  and 

*  Strauss,  Ulrich  von  Hutten,  2  vols.  (2nd  ed.,  Leipzig,  1874),  translated 
and  slightly  abridged  by  Mrs.  George  Sturge  (London,  1874). 


76  THE   RENAISSANCE 

son.  They  pointed  out  that  the  young  man's  abilities 
might  find  scope  in  a  diploniatic  career  since  tlie  Church 
was  so  distasteful  to  him,  and  the  father  was  induced  to 
permit  him  to  go  to  Italy,  provided  he  applied  himself  to 
the  study  of  law.  Ulrich  went  gladly  to  the  land  of  the 
New  Learning,  reached  Pa  via,  struggled  on  to  Bologna,  found 
that  he  liked  law  no  better  than  theology,  and  began  to  write. 
It  is  needless  to  follow  his  erratic  career.  He  succeeded 
frequently  in  getting  patrons ;  but  he  was  not  the  man  to 
live  comfortably  in  dependence ;  he  always  remembered  that 
he  was  a  Franconian  noble ;  he  had  an  irritable  temper, — 
his  wretched  health  furnishing  a  very  adequate  excuse. 

It  is  probable  that  his  sojourn  in  Italy  did  as  much 
for  him  as  for  Luther,  though  in  a  different  way.  The 
Eeformer  turned  with  loathing  from  Italian,  and  especially 
from  Koman  wickedness.  The  Humanist  meditated  on  the 
greatness  of  the  imperial  idea,  now,  he  thought,  the  birth- 
right of  his  Germany,  which  was  being  robbed  of  it  by  the 
Papacy.  Henceforward  he  was  dominated  by  one  per- 
sistent thought. 

He  was  a  Humanist  and  a  poet,  but  a  man  apart, 
marked  out  from  among  his  fellows,  destined  to  live  in  the 
memories  of  his  nation  when  their  names  had  been  for- 
gotten. They  might  be  better  scholars,  able  to  write  a 
finer  Latinity,  and  pen  trifles  more  elegantly ;  but  he  was 
a  man  with  a  purpose.  His  erratic  and  by  no  means  pure 
life  was  ennobled  by  his  sincere,  if  limited  and  unpractical, 
patriotism.  He  wrought,  schemed,  fought,  flattered,  and 
apostrophised  to  create  a  united  Germany  under  a  reformed 
Emperor.  Whatever  hindered  this  was  to  be  attacked 
with  what  weapons  of  sarcasm,  invective,  and  scorn  were 
at  his  command ;  and  the  one  enemy  was  the  Papacy  of 
the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  all  that  it  implied. 
It  was  the  Papacy  that  drained  Germany  of  gold,  that  kept 
the  Emperor  in  thraldom,  that  set  one  portion  of  the  land 
against  the  other,  that  gave  the  separatist  designs  of  the 
princes  their  promise  of  success.  The  Papacy  was  his 
Carthage,  which  must  be  destroyed. 


ULRICH   VON   HUTTEN  77 

Hutten  was  a  master  of  invective,  fearless,  critically 
destructive ;  but  he  had  small  constructive  faculty.  It  is 
not  easy  to  discover  what  he  meant  by  a  reformation  of 
the  Empire — something  loomed  before  him  vague,  grand, 
a  renewal  of  an  imagined  past.  Germany  might  be  great, 
it  is  suggested  in  the  Inspicientes  (written  in  1520),  if  the 
Papacy  were  defied,  if  the  princes  were  kept  in  their 
proper  place  of  subordination,  if  a  great  imperial  army 
were  created  and  paid  out  of  a  common  imperial  fund, — an 
army  where  the  officers  were  the  knights,  and  the  privates 
a  peasant  infantry  (landsknechts).  It  is  the  passion  for  a 
German  Imperial  Unity  which  we  find  in  all  Hutten's 
writings,  from  the  early  Epistola  ad  Maximilianum  Gcesarem 
Italioe  fictitia,  the  Vadiscus,  or  the  Roman  Triads,  down  to 
the  Inspicientes — not  the  means  whereby  this  is  to  be 
created.  He  was  a  born  foeman,  one  who  loved  battle  for 
battle's  sake,  who  could  never  get  enough  of  fighting, — a 
man  with  the  blood  of  his  Franconian  ancestors  coursing 
hotly  through  his  veins.  Like  them,  he  loved  freedom 
in  all  things — personal,  intellectual,  and  religious.  Like 
them,  he  scorned  ease  and  luxury,  and  despised  the 
burghers,  with  their  love  of  comfort  and  wealth.  He 
thought  much  more  highly  of  the  robber-knights  than  of 
the  merchants  they  plundered.  Germany,  he  believed, 
would  come  right  if  the  merchants  and  the  priests  could 
be  got  rid  of.  The  robbers  were  even  German  patriots 
who  intercepted  the  introduction  of  foreign  merchandise, 
and  protected  the  German  producers  in  securing  the  profits 
due  to  them  for  their  labour. 

Hutten  is  usually  classed  as  an  ally  of  Luther's,  and 
from  the  date  of  the  Leipzig  Disputation  (1519),  when 
Luther  first  attacked  the  Eoman  Primacy,  he  was  an 
ardent  admirer  of  the  Eeformer.  But  he  had  very  little 
sympathy  with  the  deeper  religious  side  of  the  Keforma- 
tion  movement.  He  regarded  Luther's  protest  against 
Indulgences  in  very  much  the  same  way  as  did  Pope 
Leo  X.  It  was  a  contemptible  monkish  dispute,  and  all 
sensible  men,  he  thought,  ought  to  delight  to  see  monks 


78  THE   RENAISSANCE 

devour  one  another.  "  I  lately  said  to  a  friar,  who  was 
telling  me  about  it,"  he  writes,  " '  Devour  one  another,  that 
ye  may  be  consumed  one  of  another.*  It  is  my  desire  that 
our  enemies  (the  monks)  may  live  in  as  much  discord  as 
possible,  and  may  be  always  quarrelling  among  themselves." 
He  attached  himself  vehemently  to  Luther  (and  Hut  ten 
was  always  vehement)  only  when  he  found  that  the  monk 
stood  for  freedom  of  conscience  {The  Liberty  of  a  Christian 
Man)  and  for  a  united  Germany  against  Eome  {To  the 
Christian  Nolility  of  the  German  Nation  respecting  the 
Reformation  of  the  Christian  Estate).  As  we  study  his  face 
in  the  engravings  which  have  survived,  mark  his  hollow 
cheeks,  high  cheek-bones,  long  nose,  heavy  moustache, 
shaven  chin,  whiskers  straggling  as  if  frayed  by  the  helmet, 
and  bold  eyes,  we  can  see  the  rude  Franconian  noble,  who 
by  some  strange  freak  of  fortune  became  a  scholar,  a 
Humanist^  a  patriot,  and,  in  his  own  way,  a  reformer. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

SOCIAL  CONDITIONS.* 

§  1.  Towns  and  Trade, 

It  has  been  already  said  that  the  times  of  the  Renaissance 
were  a  period  of  transition  in  the  social  as  well  as  in 
the  intellectual  condition  of  the  peoples  of  Europe.  The 
economic  changes  were  so  great,  that  no  description  of  the 
environment  of  the  Reformation  would  be  complete  with- 
out some  account  of  the  social  revolution  which  was  slowly 
progressing.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  there 
is  some  danger  in  making  the  merely  general  statements 

*  Sources  :  Barack,  Ziinmerische  Chroniky  4  vols.  (2nd  ed. ,  Freiburg  i,  B. 
1881-1882)  ;  Chroniken  der  deutsdien  Stddtey  29  vols,  (in  progress)  ;  Grimm, 
Weisthumer,  7  vols.  (Gottingen,  1840-1878) ;  Haetzerlin,  Liederhuch  (Qued- 
linburg,  1840) ;  Liliencron,  Die  historischen  Volkslieder  der  Deutschen  vom 
dreizehnttn  his  zum  sechzehnten  Jahrhundert  (Leii^vAg,  1865-1869)  ;  Sebastian 
Brand's  Narrenschiff  (Leii:izig,  1854) ;  Geiler  von  Keysersberg's  Ausgewdhlte 
Schriften  (Trier,  1881) ;  Hans  Sachs,  Fastnachspiele  {Neudrucke  deutschen 
Litteraturwerke,  Nos.  26,  27,  31,  32,  39,  40,  42,  43,  61,  62,  60,  63,  64) ; 
Hans  von  Schweiuichen,  Lehen  und  Abenteuer  des  scJilessischen  Hitters,  Hans 
V.  Schweinichen  (Breslau,  1820-1823) ;  Vandam,  Social  Life  in  Luther  s  Time 
(Westminster,  1902) ;  Trithemius,  Annales  Ilirsaugienses  (St.  Gallen,  1590). 

Later  Books  :  Alwyn  Schnlz,  Deutsches  Lehen  im  14ten  und  ISten 
Jahrhundert  (Prague,  1892)  ;  Kriegk,  Deutsches  Biirgerlhum  im  Mittelalter 
(Frankfurt,  1868,  1871) ;  Freytag,  BUder  av^  der  deutschen  Vergangenheit, 
II.  ii.  (Leipzig,  1899 — translation  by  Mrs.  Malcolm  of  an  earlier  edition, 
London,  1862) ;  the  series  of  Monographien  zur  deutschen  Kulturgeschichte 
edited  by  Steiiihausen  (Leipzig,  1899-1905),  are  full  of  valuable  information 
and  illustrations  ;  Aloys  Schulte,  Die  Fugger  iri  Bom  (Leipzig,  1904) ; 
Gothein,  Politische  und  religiose  Volksbewegung&n  vor  der  Meformation 
(Breslau,  1878) ;  Cambridge  Modem  History,  i.  i.  xv ;  v.  Bezold,  Oeschichte 
der  deutschen  Beformaiion  (Berlin,  1890) ;  Genee,  Hans  Sachs  und  seine  Zeit 
(Leipzig,  1902)  ;  Janssen,  Oeschichte  des  deutschen  Volkes,  seil  dem  Ausgang 
des  Mittelalters,  i.  (1897)  ;  Roth  v.  Schreckenstein,  Das  Patriziat  in  den 
detUsehtn  Stddten  (Freiburg  i.  B.,  no  date). 

79 


80  SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

which  alone  are  possible  in  this  chapter.  The  economio 
forces  at  work  were  modified  and  changed  in  countries  and 
in  districts,  and  during  decades,  by  local  conditions.  Any 
general  description  is  liable  to  be  qualified  by  numerous 
exceptions. 

Beneath  the  whole  mediaeval  system  lay  the  idea  that 
the  land  was  the  only  economic  basis  of  wealth.  During 
the  earHer  Middle  Ages  this  was  largely  true  everywhere, 
and  was  specially  so  in  Germany.  Each  little  district  pro- 
duced almost  all  that  it  needed  for  its  own  wants ;  and  the 
economic  value  of  the  town  consisted  in  its  being  a  cor- 
poration of  artisans  exchanging  the  fruits  of  their  industries 
for  the  surplus  of  farm  produce  which  the  peasants  brought 
to  their  market-place.  But  the  increasing  trade  of  the 
towns,  developed  at  first  along  the  greater  rivers,  the 
arteries  of  the  countries,  gradually  produced  another  source 
of  wealth ;  and  this  commerce  made  great  strides  after  the 
Crusades  had  opened  the  Eastern  markets  to  European 
traders.  Trade,  commerce,  and  manufactures  were  the  life 
of  the  towns,  and  were  rapidly  increasing  their  importance. 

In  mediaeval  times  each  town  was  an  independent 
economic  centre,  and  the  regulation  of  industry  and  of 
trade  was  an  exclusively  municipal  affair.  This  state  of 
matters  had  changed  in  some  countries  before  the  time 
of  the  Eeformation,  and  statesmen  had  begun  to  recognise 
the  importance  of  a  national  trade,  and  to  take  steps  to 
further  it ;  but  in  Germany,  chiefly  owing  to  its  hopeless 
divisions,  the  old  state  of  matters  remained,  and  the 
municipalities  continued  to  direct  and  control  all  com- 
mercial and  industrial  affairs. 

The  towns  had  originally  grown  up  under  the  protection 
of  the  Emperor,  or  of  some  great  lord  of  the  soil,  or  of  an 
ecclesiastical  prince  or  foundation,  and  the  early  officials 
were  the  representatives  of  these  fostering  powers.  The 
descendants  of  this  early  official  class  became  known  as 
the  "patricians"  of  the  city,  and  they  regarded  all  the 
official  positions  as  the  hereditary  privileges  of  their  class. 
The  town  population  was  thoroughly  organised  in  associa- 


THE   ARTIZANS  81 

tions  of  workmen,  commonly  called  "  gilds,"  which  at  first  con- 
cerned thoDiselves  simply  with  the  regulation  and  improve- 
ment of  the  industry  carried  on,  and  with  the  education  and 
recreations  of  the  workers.  But  these  "  gilds  "  soon  assumed 
a  political  character.  The  workmen  belonging  to  them 
formed  the  fighting  force  needed  for  the  independence  and 
protection  of  the  city.  Each  "  gild "  had  its  fighting 
organisation,  its  war  banner,  its  armoury ;  and  its  members 
were  trained  to  the  use  of  arms,  and  practised  it  in  their 
hours  of  recreation.  The  "  gilds  "  therefore  began  to  claim 
some  share  in  the  government  of  the  town,  and  in  most 
German  cities,  in  the  decades  before  the  Eeformation,  the 
old  aristocratic  government  of  the  "  patricians  "  had  given 
place  to  the  more  democratic  rule  of  the  "gilds."  The 
chief  offices  connected  with  the  "  gilds  "  insensibly  tended 
to  become  hereditary  in  a  few  leading  families,  and  this 
created  a  second  "  patriciat,"  whose  control  was  resented  by 
the  great  mass  of  the  workmen.  Niirnberg  was  one  of 
the  few  great  German  cities  where  the  old  "  patricians  " 
continued  to  rule  down  to  the  times  of  the  Eeformation. 

These  "  gilds  "  were  for  the  most  part  full  of  business 
energy,  which  showed  itself  in  the  twofold  way  of  making 
such  regulations  as  they  believed  would  insure  good  work- 
manship, and  of  securing  facilities  for  the  sale  of  their  wares. 
All  the  workmen,  it  was  believed,  were  interested  in  the 
production  of  good  articles,  and  the  bad  workmanship  of  one 
artisan  was  regarded  as  bringing  discredit  upon  all.  Hence, 
as  a  rule,  every  article  was  tested  in  private  before  it 
was  exposed  for  public  sale,  and  various  punishments  were 
devised  to  check  the  production  of  inferior  goods.  Thus 
in  Bremen  every  badly  made  pair  of  shoes  was  publicly 
destroyed  at  the  pillory  of  the  town.  Such  regulations 
belonged  to  the  private  administration  of  the  towns,  and 
iiffered  in  different  places.  Indeed,  the  whole  municipal 
government  of  the  German  cities  presents  an  endless  variety, 
due  to  the  local  history  and  other  conditions  affecting  the 
individual  towns.  While  tlio  production  was  a  matter  for 
private  regulation  in  each  centre  of  industry,  distribution 
6* 


82  SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

involved  the  towns  in  something  like  a  common  policy. 
It  demanded  safe  means  of  communication  between  one 
town  and  another,  between  the  towns  and  the  rural  dis- 
tricts, and  safe  outlets  to  foreign  lands.  It  needed  roads, 
bridges,  and  security  of  travel.  The  towns  banded  them- 
selves together,  and  made  alliances  with  powerful  feudal 
nobles  to  secure  these  advantages.  Such  was  the  origin 
of  the  great  Hanseatic  League,  which  had  its  beginnings 
in  Flanders,  spread  over  North  Germany,  included  the 
Scandinavian  countries,  and  grew  to  be  a  European  power.^ 
The  less  known  leagues  among  the  cities  of  South  Germany 
did  equally  good  service,  and  they  commonly  secured 
outlets  to  Venice,  Florence,  and  Genoa,  by  alliances  with 
the  peasantry  in  whose  hands  were  the  chief  passes  of  the 
Alps.  All  this  meant  an  opposition  between  the  burghers 
and  the  nobles — an  opposition  which  was  continuous,  which 
on  occasion  flamed  out  into  great  wars,  and  which  com- 
pelled the  cities  to  maintain  civic  armies,  composed  partly 
of  their  citizens  and  partly  of  hired  troops.  It  was 
reckoned  that  Strassburg  and  Augsburg  together  could 
send  a  fighting  force  of  40,000  men  into  the  field. 

The  area  of  trade,  though,  according  to  modern  ideas, 
restricted,  was  fairly  extensive.  It  included  all  the  coun- 
tries in  modern  Europe  and  the  adjacent  seas.  The  sea- 
trade  was  carried  on  in  the  Mediterranean  and  Black  Seas, 
in  the  Baltic  and  North  Seas,  and  down  the  western  coasts 
of  France  and  Spain.  The  North  Sea  was  the  great  fishing 
ground,  and  large  quantities  of  dried  fish,  necessary  for  the 
due  keeping  of  Lent,  were  despatched  in  coasting  vessels, 
and  by  the  overland  routes  to  the  southern  countries  of 
Europe.  Furs,  skins,  and  corn  came  from  Eussia  and  the 
northern  countries.  Spain,  some  parts  of  Germany,  and 
above  all  England,  were  the  wool-exporting  countries.  The 
eastern  counties  of  England,  many  towns  in  Germany  and 
France,  and  especially  the  Low  Countries,  were  the  centres 
of  the  woollen  manufactures.     The   north  of   France  was 

^  Daenell,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  BaTise  in  der  zweiten  ffal/te  de*  14 
JahrhuTiderts  (Leipzig,  1897). 


TRADING  88 

the  great  flax-growing  country.  In  Italy,  at  Barcelona  in 
Spain,  and  at  Lyons  in  France,  silk  was  produced  and 
manufactured.  The  spices  and  dried  fruits  of  the  East, 
and  its  silks  and  costly  brocades  and  feathers,  came  from 
the  Levant  to  Venice,  and  were  carried  north  through  the 
great  passes  which  pierce  the  range  of  the  Alps. 

Civic  statesmen  did  their  best,  by  mutual  bargains  and 
the  establishment  of  factories,  to  protect  and  extend  trading 
facilities  for  their  townsmen.  The  German  merchant  had 
his  magnificent  Fondaco  dei  Tedeschi  in  Venice,  his  factories 
of  the  Hanseatic  League  in  London,  Bruges,  Bergen,  and 
even  in  far-off  Novgorod ;  and  Englishmen  had  also  their 
factories  in  foreign  parts,  within  which  they  could  buy  and 
sell  in  peace. 

The  perils  of  the  German  merchant,  in  spite  of  all 
civic  leagues,  were  at  home  rather  than  abroad.  His  country 
swarmed  with  Eree  Nobles,  each  of  whom  looked  upon 
himself  as  a  sovereign  power,  with  full  right  to  do  as  he 
pleased  within  his  own  dominions,  whether  these  were  an 
extensive  principality  or  a  few  hundred  acres  surrounding 
his  castle.  He  could  impose  what  tolls  or  customs  dues 
he  pleased  on  the  merchants  whose  heavily-laden  waggons 
entered  his  territories.  He  had  customary  rights  which 
made  bad  roads  and  the  lack  of  bridges  advantages  to  the 
lord  of  the  soil.  If  an  axle  or  wheel  broke,  if  a  waggon 
upset  in  crossing  a  dangerous  ford,  the  bales  thrown  on 
the  path  or  stranded  on  the  banks  of  the  stream  could  be 
claimed  by  the  proprietor  of  the  land.  Worse  than  all 
were  the  perils  from  the  robber-knights — men  who  insisted 
on  their  right  to  make  private  war  even  when  that  took 
the  form  of  highway  robbery,  and  who  largely  subsisted  on 
the  gains  which  came,  as  they  said,  from  making  their 
"  horses  bite  off  the  purses  of  travellers." 

In  spite  of  all  these  hindrances,  a  capitalist  class 
gradually  arose  in  Germany.  Large  profits,  altogether 
apart  from  trade,  could  be  made  by  managing,  collecting, 
and  forwarding  tlie  money  coming  from  the  universal 
system  of  Indulgences.      It    was    in    this    way  that   the 


84  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

Fuggers  of  Augsburg  first  rose  to  wealth.  Money  soon 
bred  money.  During  the  greater  part  of  the  Middle  Ages 
there  was  no  such  thing  as  lending  out  money  on  interest, 
save  among  the  Italian  merchants  of  North  Italy  or 
among  the  Jews.  The  Church  had  always  prohibited 
what  it  called  usury.  But  Churchmen  were  the  first  to 
practise  the  sin  they  had  condemned.  The  members  of 
ecclesiastical  corporations  began  to  make  useful  advances, 
charging  an  interest  of  from  7  to  12  per  cent. — moderate 
enough  for  the  times.  Gradually  the  custom  spread  among 
the  wealthy  laity,  who  did  not  confine  themselves  to  these 
reasonable  profits,  and  we  find  Sebastian  Brand  inveighing 
against  the  "  Christian  Jews,"  who  had  become  worse 
oppressors  than  the  Israelite  capitalists  whom  they  copied. 
But  the  great  alteration  in  social  conditions,  following 
change  in  the  distribution  of  wealth,  came  when  the  age 
of  geographical  discovery  had  made  a  world  commerce  a 
possible  thing. 

§  2.  Geographical  Discoveries  and  the  beginning  of  a 
World  Trade, 

The  fifteenth  century  from  its  beginning  had  seen  one 
geographical  discovery  after  another.  Perhaps  we  may 
say  that  the  sailors  of  Genoa  had  begun  the  new  era 
by  reaching  the  Azores  and  Madeira.  Then  Dom 
Henrique  of  Portugal,  Governor  of  Ceuta,  organised 
voyages  of  trade  and  discovery  down  the  coast  of  Africa. 
Portuguese,  Venetian,  and  Genoese  captains  commanded 
his  vessels.  From  1426,  expedition  after  expedition  was 
sent  forth,  and  at  his  death  in  1460  the  coast  of  Africa 
as  far  as  Guinea  had  been  explored.  His  work  was 
carried  on  by  his  countrymen.  The  Guinea  trade  in 
slaves,  gold,  and  ivory  was  established  as  early  as  1480  ; 
the  Congo  was  reached  in  1484;  and  Portuguese  ships, 
under  Bartholomew  Diaz,  rounded  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope 
in  1486.  During  these  later  years  a  new  motive  liad 
prompted  the  voyages  of  exploration-     The  growth  of  the 


TRADING    COMPANIES  85 

Turkish  power  in  the  east  of  Europe  liad  destroyed  the 
commercial  colonies  and  factories  on  the  Black  Sea ;  the 
fall  of  Constantinople  had  blocked  the  route  along  the 
valley  of  the  Danube ;  and  Venice  had  a  monopoly  of  the 
trade  with  Egypt  and  Syria,  the  only  remaining  channels 
by  which  the  merchandise  from  the  East  reached  Europe. 
[The  great  commercial  problem  of  the  times  was  how  to 
i  get  some  hold  of  the  direct  trade  with  the  East.  It  was 
this  that  inspired  Bristol  skippers,  familiar  with  Iceland, 
with  the  idea  that  by  following  old  Norse  traditions  they 
might  find  a  path  by  way  of  the  North  Atlantic;  that 
sent  Columbus  across  the  Mid-Atlantic  to  discover  the 
Bahamas  and  the  continent  of  America ;  and  that  drove 
the  more  fortunate  Portuguese  round  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope.  Young  Vasco  da  Gama  reached  the  goal  first, 
when,  after  doubling  the  Cape,  he  sailed  up  the  eastern 
coast  of  Africa,  reached  Mombasa,  and  then  boldly  crossed 
the  Indian  Ocean  to  Calicut,  the  Indian  emporium  for  that 
rich  trade  which  all  the  European  nations  were  anxious  to 
share.  The  possibilities  of  a  world  commerce  led  to  the 
creation  of  trading  companies;  for  a  larger  capital  was 
needed  than  individual  merchants  possessed,  and  the 
formation  of  these  companies  overshadowed,  discredited, 
and  finally  destroyed  the  gild  system  of  the  mediaeval 
trading  cities.  Trade  and  industry  became  capitalised  to 
a  degree  previously  unknown.  One  great  family  of 
capitalists,  the  Welser,  had  factories  in  Eome,  Milan, 
Genoa,  and  Lyons,  and  tapped  the  rich  Eastern  trade  by 
their  houses  in  Antwerp,  Lisbon,  and  Madeira.  They 
even  tried,  unsuccessfully,  to  establish  a  German  colony 
'■m  the  new  continent — in  Venezuela.  Another,  the 
f  uggers  of  Augsburg,  were  interested  in  all  kinds  of 
trade,  but  especially  in  the  mining  industry.  It  is  said 
that  the  mines  of  Thuringia,  Carinthia,  and  the  Tyrol 
within  Germany,  and  those  of  Hungary  and  Spain  outside 
it,  were  almost  aU  in  their  hands.  The  capital  of  the 
family  was  estimated  in  1546  at  sixty-three  millions  of 
gulden.      This  increaco  of  wcallli  t!'  or  not  seciii   to  have 


86  SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

been  confined  to  a  few  favourites  of  fortune.  It  belonged 
to  the  mass  of  the  members  of  the  great  trading  companies. 
Von  Bezold  instances  a  "  certain  native  of  Augsburg " 
whose  investment  of  500  gulden  in  a  merchant  company- 
brought  him  in  seven  years  24,500  gulden.  Merchant 
princes  confronted  the  princes  of  the  State  and  those  of 
the  Church,  and  their  presence  and  power  dislocated  the 
old  social  relations.  The  towns,  the  abodes  of  these  rich 
merchants,  acquired  a  new  and  powerful  influence  among 
the  complex  of  national  relations,  until  it  is  not  too  much 
to  say,  that  if  the  political  future  of  Germany  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  secular  princes,  its  social  condition  came  to 
be  dominated  by  the  burgher  class. 

§  3.  Increase  in  Wealth  and  luxurious  Living, 

i'  Culture,  which  had  long  abandoned  the  cloisters,  came 
to  settle  in  the  towns.  We  have  already  seen  that  they 
were  the  centres  of  German  Humanism  and  of  the  New 
Learning.  The  artists  of  the  German  Eenaissance  belonged 
to  the  towns,  and  their  principal  patrons  were  the  wealthy 
burghers.  The  rich  merchants  displayed  their  civic 
patriotism  in  aiding  to  build  greac  churches ;  in  erecting 
magnificent  chambers  of  commerce,  where  merchandise 
could  be  stored,  with  halls  for  buying  and  selling,  and 
rooms  where  the  merchants  of  the  town  could  consult 
about  the  interests  of  the  civic  trade;  in  building 
Artushofe  or  assembly  rooms,  where  the  patrician  burghers 
had  their  public  dances,  dinners,  and  other  kinds  of 
social  entertainments;  in  raising  great  towers  for  the 
honour  of  the  town.  They  built  magnificent  private 
houses.  iEneas  Sylvius  tells  us  that  in  Niirnberg  he 
saw  many  burgher  houses  that  befitted  kings,  and  that 
the  King  of  Scotland  was  not  as  nobly  housed  as  a 
Nurnberg  burgher  of  the  second  rank.  They  filled  these 
dwellings  with  gold  and  silver  plate,  and  with  costly 
Venetian  glass ;  their  furniture  was  adorned  with  delicate 
wood -carving ;  costly  tapestries,  paintings,  and  engravings 


LUXURIOUS    LIVING    AND    CORRUPTION   OF    MORALS    87 

decorated  the  walls ;  and  the  reception-room  or  siube  was 
the  place  of  greatest  display.  The  towns  in  which  all 
this  weaHh  was  accumulated  were  neither  populous  nor 
powerful.  They  cannot  be  compared  with  the  city 
republics  of  Italy,  where  the  town  ruled  over  a  large 
territory :  the  lands  belonging  to  the  imperial  cities 
of  Germany  were  comparatively  of  small  extent.  Nor 
could  they  boast  of  the  population  of  the  great  cities 
of  the  Netherlands.  Nlirnberg,  it  is  said,  had  a  population 
of  a  little  over  20,000  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  Strassburg,  a  somewhat  smaller  one.  The 
population  of  Frankfurt-on-the-Main  was  about  10,000 
in  1440.^  The  number  of  inhabitants  had  probably 
increased  by  one-half  more  in  the  decades  immediately 
preceding  the  Keformation.  But  all  the  great  towns, 
with  their  elaborate  fortifications,  handsome  buildings,  and 
massive  towers,  had  a  very  imposing  appearance  in  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

There  was,  however,  another  side  to  all  this.  There  was 
very  little  personal  "  comfort "  and  very  little  personal 
refinement  among  the  rich  burghers  and  nobles  of  Germany 
— much  less  than  among  the  corresponding  classes  in  Italy, 
the  Netherlands,  and  France.  The  towns  were  badly 
drained,  if  drained  at  all ;  the  streets  were  seldom  paved, 
and  mud  and  filth  accumulated  in  almost  indescribable 
ways ;  the  garbage  was  thrown  out  of  the  windows ;  and 
troops  of  swine  were  the  ordinary  scavengers.  The  increase 
of  wealth  showed  itself  chiefly  in  all  kinds  of  sensual  living. 
Preachers,  economists,  and  satirists  denounce  the  luxury 
and  immodesty  of  the  dress  both  of  men  and  women,  the 
gluttony  and  the  drinking  habits  of  the  rich  burghers  and 
of  the  nobility  of  Germany.  We  learn  from  Hans  von 
Schweinichen  that  noblemen  prided  themselves  on  having 
men  among   their   retainers  who  could    drink    all    rivals 

*  These  figures  have  been  taken  from  Dr.  F.  von  Bezold  {Gesehichte  der 
deutschen  Reformation,  Berlin,  1890,  p.  36).  When  the  Chrom.:  Ejnsc. 
Hildeskeim.  says  that  during  a  visitation  of  the  plague  10,000  persons  died 
in  Niirnberg  alone,  the  territory  as  well  as  the  city  must  be  included. 


^ 


88  SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

beneath  the  table,  and  that  noble  personages  seldom  met 
without  such  a  drinking  contest.^  The  wealthy,  learned, 
and  artistic  city  of  Niirnberg  possessed  a  public  waggon, 
which  every  night  was  led  through  the  streets  to  pick  up 
and  convey  to  their  homes  drunken  burghers  found  lying 
in  the  filth  of  the  streets.  The  Chronicle  of  the  Zimmer 
Family  relates  that  at  the  castle  of  Count  Andrew  of  Son- 
nenberg,  at  the  conclusion  of  a  carnival  dance  and  after  the 
usual  "  sleeping  drink  "  had  been  served  round,  one  of  the 
company  went  to  the  kennels  and  carried  to  the  ball-room 
buckets  of  scraps  and  slops  gathered  to  feed  the  hounds, 
and  that  the  lords  and  ladies  amused  themselves  by  flinging 
the  contents  at  each  other,  "  to  the  great  detriment,"  the 
chronicler  adds,  "  of  their  clothes  and  of  the  room."  ^  A  hke 
licence  pervaded  the  relations  between  men  and  women,  of 
which  it  will  perhaps  suffice  to  say  that  the  public  baths, 
where,  be  it  noted,  the  bathing  was  often  promiscuous,  were 
such  that  they  served  Albert  Diirer  and  other  contemporary 
painters  the  purpose  of  a  "  life  school "  to  make  drawings 
of  the  nude.^  The  conversation  and  behaviour  of  the  nobles 
and  wealthy  burghers  of  Germany  in  the  decades  before  the 
Eeformation  displayed  a  coarseness  which  would  now  be 
held  to  disgrace  the  lowest  classes  of  the  population  in  any 
country.* 

The  gradual  capitalising  of  industry  had  been  sapping 
the  old  "  gild  "  organisation  within  the  cities  ;  the  extension 
of  commerce,  and  especially  the  shifting  of  the  centre  of  ex- 
ternal trade  from  Venice  to  Antwerp,  in  consequence  of  the 
discovery  of  the  new  route  to  the  Eastern  markets,  and 

^  Hans  von  Schweinichen,  i.  185. 

*  Zimmerische  Chronik,  ii.  68,  69. 

*  Ephrussi,  Les  Bains  des  Femmes  d' Albert  Diirer  (Niirnberg,  no  date). 

*  It  has  recently  become  a  fashion  among  some  Anglican  and  Roman 
Catholic  writers  to  dwell  on  the  "coarseness"  of  Luther  displayed  in  his 
writings.  One  is  tempted  to  ask  whether  these  writers  have  ever  read  the 
Ziminer  Chronicle^  if  they  know  anything  about  the  Fastnachtspiele  in  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  of  the  Rollwagen^  of  Thomas  Murner 
and  Bebel,  Humanists  ;  above  all,  if  they  have  ever  heard  of  the  parable  of 
the  mote  and  the  beam  % 


PEASANT   LIFE  89 

above  all,  the  growth  of  the  great  merchant  companies, 
whose  world-trade  required  enormous  capital,  overshadowed 
the  "  gilds "  and  destroyed  their  influence.  The  rise  and 
power  of  this  capitalist  order  severed  the  poor  from  the 
rich,  and  created,  in  a  sense  unknown  before,  a  proletariat 
class  within  the  cities,  which  was  liable  to  be  swollen  by 
the  influx  of  discontented  and  ruined  peasants  from  the 
country  districts.  The  corruption  of  morals,  which  reached 
its  height  in  the  city  life  of  the  first  quarter  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  intensified  the  growing  hatred  between 
the  rich  burgher  and  the  poor  workman.  The  ostentatious 
display  of  burgher  wealth  heightened  the  natural  antipathy 
between  merchant  and  noble.  The  universal  hatred  of  the 
merchant  class  is  a  pronounced  feature  of  the  times.  "  They 
increase  prices,  make  hunger,  and  slay  the  poor  folk,"  was 
a  common  saying.  Men  like  Ulrich  von  Hutten  were 
prepared  to  justify  the  robber-knights  because  they  attacked 
the  merchants,  who,  he  said,  were  ruining  Germany.  Yet 
the  merchant  class  increased  and  flourished,  and  with  them, 
the  towns  which  they  inhabited. 

§  4.  The  Condition  of  the  Peasantry, 

The  condition  of  the  peasantry  in  Germany  has  also  to 
be  described.  The  folk  who  practise  husbandry  usually 
form  the  most  stable  element  in  any  community,  but  they 
could  not  avoid  being  touched  by  the  economic  movements 
of  the  time.  The  seeds  of  revolution  had  long  been 
sown  among  the  German  peasantry,  and  peasant  risings 
had  taken  place  in  different  districts  of  south-central 
Europe  from  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  down  to  the 
opening  years  of  the  sixteenth  centuries.  It  is  difficult 
to  describe  accurately  the  state  of  these  German 
peasants.  The  social  condition  of  the  nobles  and  the 
burghers  has  had  many  an  historian,  and  their  modes 
of  life  have  left  abundant  traces  in  literature  and  archseo- 
logy;  but  peasant  houses  and  implements  soon  perished, 
and  the  chronicles  seldom  refer  to  the  world  to  which  the 


90  SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

"land-folk"  belonged,  save  wbea  some  local  peasant  rising 
or  the  tragedy  of  the  Peasants'  War  thrust  them  into 
history.  Our  main  difficulty,  however,  does  not  arise  so 
much  from  lack  of  descriptive  material — for  that  can  be 
found  when  diligently  sought  for — -as  from  the  varying, 
almost  contradictory  statements  that  are  mada  Some 
contemporary  writers  condescend  to  describe  the  peasant 
class.  A  large  number  of  collections  of  Weisthlimer,  the 
consuetudinary  laws  which  regulated  the  life  of  the  village 
communities,  have  been  recovered  and  carefully  edited ;  ^ 
folk-songs  preserve  the  old  life  and  usages ;  many  of  the 
Fastnachtspiele  or  rude  carnival  dramas  deal  with  peasant 
scenes ;  and  Albert  Diirer  and  other  artists  of  the  times 
have  sketched  over  and  over  again  the  peasant,  his  house 
and  cot-yard,  his  village  and  his  daily  life.  We  can,  in 
part,  reconstruct  the  old  peasant  life  and  its  surroundings. 
Only  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  life  varied  not  only 
in  different  parts  of  Germany,  but  in  the  same  districts  and 
decades  under  different  rural  proprietors ;  for  the  peasant 
was  so  dependent  on  his  over-lord  that  the  character  of 
the  proprietor  counted  for  much  in  the  condition  of  the 
people. 

The  village  artisan  did  not  exist.  The  peasants  lived  by 
themselves  apart  from  all  other  classes  of  the  population. 
That  is  the  universal  statement.  They  carried  the  produce 
of  their  land  and  their  live-stock  to  the  nearest  town,  sold 
it  in  the  market-place,  and  bought  there  what  they  needed 
for  their  life  and  work. 

They  dwelt  in  villages  fortified  after  a  fashion ;  for  the 
group  of  houses  was  surrounded  sometimes  by  a  wall,  but 
usually  by  a  stout  fence,  made  with  strong  stakes  and 
interleaved  branches.  This  was  entered  by  a  gate  that 
could  be  locked.     Outside  the  fence,  circling  the  whole  was 


*  The  most  complete  collection  of  the  Weisthilmer  is  in  seven  volumes. 
Volumes  i.-iv.  edited  by  J.  Grimm,  and  volumes  v.-vii.  edited  by  R.. 
Schroedei,  Gottingeu,  1840-1842,  1866,  1369,  1878.  Important  extracts 
are  given  by  Alwin  Schultz  in  his  Deutsches  Leben  im  14  nnd  16  Jaht' 
hundert,  Vienna,  1892,  pp.  145-178  (Grosse  Ausgabe). 


PEASANT   LIFE  91 

a  de  ep  ditch  crossed  by  a  "  falling  door "  or  drawbridge. 
Within  the  fence  among  the  houses  there  was  usually  a 
small  church,  a  public-house,  a  house  or  room  {Spielhaus) 
where  the  village  council  met  and  where  justice  was  dis- 
pensed. In  front  stood  a  strong  wooden  stake,  to  which 
criminals  were  tied  for  punishment,  and  near  it  always  the 
stocks,  sometimes  a  gallows,  and  more  rarely  the  pole  and 
wheel  for  the  barbarous  mediaeval  punishment  "  breaking 
on  the  wheel." 

The  houses  were  wooden  frames  filled  in  with  sun- 
dried  bricks,  and  were  thatched  with  straw ;  the  chimneys 
were  of  wood  protected  with  clay.  The  cattle,  fuel,  fodder, 
and  family  were  sheltered  under  the  one  large  roof.  The 
timber  for  building  and  repairs  was  got  from  the  forest 
under  regulations  set  down  in  the  Weisthumer,  and  the 
peasants  had  leave  to  collect  the  fallen  branches  for  fire- 
wood, the  w^omen  gathering  and  carrying,  and  the  men 
cutting  and  stacking  under  the  eaves.  All  breaches  of 
the  forest  laws  were  severely  punished  (in  some  of  the 
Weisthumer  the  felling  of  a  tree  without  leave  was  pun- 
ished by  beheading) ;  so  was  the  moving  of  landmarks ;  for 
wood  and  soil  were  precious. 

Most  houses  had  a  small  fenced  garden  attached,  in 
which  were  grown  cabbages,  greens,  and  lettuce  ;  small  onions 
(cibolle,  Scotticd  syboes),  parsley,  and  peas ;  poppies,  garlic, 
and  hemp ;  apples,  plums,  and,  in  South  Germany,  grapes ; 
as  well  as  other  things  whose  mediaeval  German  names  are 
not  translatable  by  me.  Wooden  beehives  were  placed  in 
the  garden,  and  a  pigeon-house  usually  stood  in  the  yard. 

The  scanty  underclothing  of  the  peasants  was  of  wool 
and  the  outer  dress  of  linen — the  men's,  girt  with  a  belt 
from  which  hung  a  sword,  for  they  always  went  armed. 
Their  furniture  consisted  of  a  table,  several  three-legged 
stools,  and  one  or  two  chests.  Paide  cooking  utensils  hung 
on  the  walls,  and  dried  pork,  fruits,  and  baskets  of  grain 
on  the  rafters.  The  drinking-cups  were  of  coarse  clay ; 
and  we  find  regulations  that  the  table-cloth  or  covering 
ought  to  be  washed  at  least  once  a  year !     Their  ordinary 


92  SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

food  was  "  some  poor  bread,  oatmeal  porridge,  and  cooked 
vegetables ;  and  their  drink,  water  and  whey."  The  live- 
stock included  horses,  cows,  goats,  sheep,  pigs,  and  hens.^ 

The  villagers  elected  from  among  themselves  four  men, 
the  Bauernmeister,  who  were  the  Fathers  of  the  community. 
They  were  the  arbiters  in  disputes,  settled  quarrels, 
and  arranged  for  an  equitable  distribution  of  the  various 
feudal  assessments  and  services.  They  had  no  judicial  or 
administrative  powers ;  these  belonged  to  the  over-lord, 
or  a  representative  appointed  by  him.  This  official  sat 
in  the  justice  room,  heard  cases,  issued  sentences,  and 
exercised  all  the  mediaeval  powers  of  "pit  and  gallows." 
The  whole  list  of  mediaeval  punishments,  ludicrous  and 
gruesome,  were  at  his  command.  It  was  he  who  ordered 
the  scolding  wife  to  be  carried  round  the  church  three 
times  while  her  neighbours  jeered  ;  who  set  the  unfortunate 
charcoal-burner,  who  had  transgressed  some  forest  law,  into 
the  stocks,  with  his  bare  feet  exposed  to  a  slow  fire  till 
his  soles  were  thoroughly  burnt ;  who  beheaded  men  who 
cut  down  trees,  and  ordered  murderers  to  be  broken  on  the 
wheel.  He  saw  that  the  rents,  paid  in  kind,  were  duly 
gathered.  He  directed  the  forced  services  of  ploughing, 
sowing,  and  harvesting  the  over-lord's  fields,  what  wood 
was  to  be  hewn  for  the  castle,  what  ditches  dug,  and  what 
roads  repaired.     He  saw  that  the  peasants  drank  no  wine 

^  In  the  interesting  collection  of  mediaeval  songs,  of  date  1470  or  1471, 
Liederbuch  der  Clara  Eatzlerin  (Quedlinburg  and  Leipzig,  1840),  No.  67 
(p.  259),  entitled  Von  Mair  Betzen,  describes  a  peasant  wedding,  and  tells 
us  what  each  of  the  pair  contributed  to  the  ** plenishing."  The  bridegroom, 
Betze  or  Bartholomew  Mair,  gave  to  his  bride  an  acre  (juchart)  of  land  well 
sown  with  flax,  eight  bushels  of  oats,  two  sheep,  a  cock  and  fourteen  hens, 
and  a  small  sum  of  money  {f  ilnff  pfunt  pfenning) ;  while  Metze  Nodung,  the 
bride,  brought  to  the  common  stock  two  wooden  beehives,  a  mare,  a  goat, 
a  calf,  a  dun  cow,  and  a  young  pig.  It  is  perhaps  worth  remarking  that, 
according  to  the  almost  universal  custom  in  mediaeval  Germany,  and  in 
spite  of  ecclesiastical  commands  and  threats,  the  actual  marriage  ceremony 
consisted  in  the  father  of  the  bride  demanding  from  the  young  people  whether 
they  took  each  other  for  man  and  wife,  and  in  their  promising  themselves 
to  each  other  before  witnesses.  It  was  not  until  the  morning  after  the 
marriage  had  been  consummated  that  the  wedded  pair  went  to  church  to  get 
the  priest's  blessing  on  a  marriage  that  had  taken  place. 


PEASANT   LIFE  93 

but  what  came  from  the  proprietor's  vineyards,  and  that 
they  drank  it  in  sufficient  quantity  ;  that  they  ground  their 
grain  at  the  proprietor's  mill,  and  fired  their  bread  at  the 
estate  bakehouse.  He  exacted  the  two  most  valuable  of 
the  moveable  goods  of  a  dead  peasant — the  hated  "  death- 
tax."  There  was  no  end  to  his  powers.  Of  course,  accord- 
ing to  the  Weisthiimer,  these  powers  were  to  be  exercised 
in  customary  ways;  and  in  some  parts  of  Germany  the 
indefinite  "  forced  services "  had  been  commuted  to  twelve 
days'  service  in  the  year,  and  in  others  to  the  payment  of 
a  fixed  rate  in  lieu  of  service. 

This  description  of  the  peasant  life  has  been  taken 
entirely  from  the  WeistJiilmeTy  and,  for  reasons  to  be  seen 
immediately,  it  perhaps  represents  rather  a  "  golden  past " 
than  the  actual  state  of  matters  at  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  It  shows  the  peasants  living  in  a  state 
of  rude  plenty,  but  for  the  endless  exactions  of  their  lords 
and  the  continual  robberies  to  which  they  were  exposed  from 
bands  of  sturdy  rogues  which  swarmed  through  the  country, 
and  from  companies  of  soldiers,  who  thought  nothing  of 
carrying  off  the  peasant's  cows,  slaying  his  swine,  maltreat- 
ing his  womenkind,  and  even  firing  his  house. 

The  peasants  had  their  diversions,  not  always  too 
seemly.  On  the  days  of  Church  festivals,  and  they  were 
numerous,  the  peasantry  went  to  church  and  heard  Mass 
in  the  morning,  talked  over  the  village  business  under  the 
lime-trees,  or  in  some  open  space  near  the  village,  and 
spent  the  afternoon  in  such  amusements  as  they  liked 
best — eating  and  drinking  at  the  public-house,  and  dancing 
on  the  village  green.  In  one  of  his  least  known  poems, 
Hans  Sachs  describes  the  scene — the  girls  and  the  pipers 
waiting  at  the  dancing-place,  and  the  men  and  lads  in  the 
public-house  eating  calf's  head,  tripe,  liver,  black  puddings, 
and  roast  pork,  and  drinking  whey  and  the  sour  country 
wine,  until  some  sank  under  the  ben  dies ;  and  there  was 
such  a  jostling,  scratching,  shoving,  bawling,  and  singing, 
that  not  a  word  could  be  lieard.  Then  three  young  men 
came  to  the  dancing-place,  his  sweetheart  had  a  garland 


94  SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

ready  for  one  of  them,  and  the  dancing  began ;  other 
couples  joined,  and  at  last  sixteen  pairs  of  feet  were  in 
motion.     Eough  jests,  gestures,  and  caresses  went  round. 

"Nach  dern  der  Messner  von  Hirschau, 
Der  tanzet  niit  des  Pfarrhaus  Frau 
Von  Budenheim,  die  liat  er  lieb, 
Viel  Scherzens  am  Tanz  mit  ihr  trieb." 

The  men  whirled  their  partners  off  their  feet  and  spun 
them  round  and  round,  or  seized  them  by  the  waist  and 
tossed  them  as  high  as  they  could ;  while  they  themselves 
leaped  and  threw  out  their  feet  in  such  reckless  ways  that 
Hans  Sachs  thought  they  would  all  fall  down. 
*  The  winter  amusements  gathered  round  the  spinning 
house.  For  it  was  the  custom  in  most  German  villages 
for  the  young  women  to  resort  to  a  large  room  in  the  mill, 
or  to  the  village  tavern,  or  to  a  neighbour's  house,  with 
their  wool  and  flax,  their  distaffs  and  spindles,  some  of 
them  old  heirlooms  and  richly  ornamented,  to  spin  all 
evening.  The  lads  came  also  to  pick  the  fluff  off  the 
lasses*  dresses,  they  said;  to  hold  the  small  beaker  of 
water  into  which  they  dipped  their  fingers  as  they  span ; 
and  to  cheer  the  spinsters  with  songs  and  recitations. 
After  work  came  the  dancing.  On  festival  evenings,  and 
especially  at  carnival  times,  the  lads  treated  their  sweet- 
hearts to  a  late  supper  and  a  dance ;  and  escorted  them 
home,  carrying  their  distaffs  and  spindles.^  All  the  old 
German  love  folk-songs  are  full  of  allusions  to  this  peasant 
courtship,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  from  the 
singing  in  the  spinning  house  have  come  most  of  the 
oldest  folk-songs. 

These  descriptions  apply  to  the  German  peasants  of 
Central  and  South  Germany.  In  the  north  and  north-east, 
the  agricultural  population,  which  was  for  the  most  part 
of  Slavonic  descent,  had  been  reduced  by  their  con- 
querors to  a  serfdom  which  had  no  parallel  in  the  more 
favoured  districts. 

*  Barack,  Zeitschrift  fiir  deutsche  CtcUurgeschichU,  ir.  (1859)  36  ff 


SOCIAL   REVOLTS  95 

§  6.  Earlier  Social  Revolts, 

It  was  among  the  peasants  of  German  descent  that 
there  had  been  risings,  successful  and  unsuccessful,  for 
more  than  a  century.  The  train  for  revolution  had  been 
laid  not  where  serfdom  was  at  its  worst,  but  where  there 
was  ease  enough  in  life  to  allow  men  to  think,  and  where 
freedom  was  nearest  in  sight.  It  may  be  well  to  refer  to 
the  earlier  peasant  revolts,  before  attempting  to  investigate 
the  causes  of  that  permanent  unrest  which  was  abundantly 
evident  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
/  The  first  great  successful  peasant  rebellion  was  the 
fight  for  freedom  made  by  the  people  of  the  four  forest 
cantons  in  Switzerland.  The  weapons  with  which  they 
overthrew  the  chivalry  of  Europe,  rude  pikes  made  by 
tying  their  scythes  to  their  alpenstocks,  may  still  be  seen 
in  the  historical  museums  of  Basel  and  Constance.  They 
proved  that  man  for  man  the  peasant  was  as  good  as  the 
noble.  The  free  peasant  soldier  had  come  into  being.  These 
free  peasants  did  not  really  secede  from  the  Empire  till 
1499,  and  were  formally  connected  with  it  till  1648.  The 
Emperor  was  still  their  over-lord.  But  they  were  his  free 
peasants,  able  to  form  leagues  for  their  mutual  defence 
and  for  the  protection  of  their  rights.  Other  cantons  and 
some  neighbouring  cities  joined  them,  and  the  Swiss  Con- 
federacy, with  its  fiag,  a  white  cross  on  a  red  ground,  and 
its  motto,  "  Each  for  all  and  all  for  each,"  became  a  new 
nation  in  Europe.  During  the  next  century  (1424—1471) 
the  peasants  of  the  Rhaetian  Alps  also  won  their  freedom, 
and  formed  a  confederacy  similar  to  the  Swiss,  though 
separate  from  it.     It  was  called  the   Graubund, 

The  example  of  these  peasant  republics,  strong  in  the 
protection  which  their  mountains  gave  them,  fired  the 
imagination  of  the  German  peasantry  of  the  south  and  the 
south-west  of  the  Empire,  and  the  leaders  of  lost  popular 
causes  found  a  refuge  in  the  Alpine  valleys  while  they 
meditated  on  fresh  schemes  to  emancipate  their  followers. 
We  have  evidence  of  the  popularity  of  the  Swiss  in  the 


96  SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

towns  and  country  districts  of  Germany  all  through  the 
fifteenth  and  into  the  sixteenth  century.^ 

But  while  the  social  tumults  and  popular  uprisings 
against  authority,  which  are  a  feature  of  the  close  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  are  usually  and  rightly  enough  called  peasant 
insurrections,  the  name  tends  to  obscure  their  real  char- 
acter. They  were  rather  the  revolts  of  the  poor  against 
the  rich,  of  debtors  against  creditors,  of  men  who  had 
scanty  legal  rights  or  none  at  all  against  those  who  had 
the  protection  of  the  existing  laws,  and  they  were  joined 
by  the  poor  of  the  towns  as  well  as  by  the  peasantry 
of  the  country  districts.  The  peasants  generally  began 
the  revolt  and  the  townsmen  followed;  but  this  was 
not  always  the  case.  Sometimes  the  mob  of  the  cities 
rose  first  and  the  peasants  joined  afterwards.  In  many 
cases,  too,  the  poorer  nobles  were  in  secret  or  open  sym- 
pathy with  the  insurrectionary  movement.  On  more  than 
one  occasion  they  led  the  insurgents  and  fought  at  their 
head.  The  union  of  poor  nobles  and  peasants  had  made 
the  Bohemian  revolt  successful. 

It  must  also  be  remembered  that  from  the  end  of  the 
fourteenth  century  on  to  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth, 
however  varied  the  cries  and  watchwords  of  the  insurgents 
may  be,  one  persistent  note  of  detestation  of  the  priests 
(the  pfaffen)  is  always  heard ;  and,  from  the  way  in  which 
Jews  and  priests  are  continually  linked  together  in  one 
common  denunciation,  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  hatred 
arose  more  from  the  intolerable  pressure  of  clerical  ex- 
tortion than  from  any  feeling  of  irreligion.  The  tithes, 
great  and  small,  and  the  means  taken  to  exact  them,  were 
a  galling  burden.  "  The  priests,"  says  an  English  writer, 
"  have  their  tenth  part  of  all  the  corn,  meadows,  pasture, 
grass,  wood,  colts,  lambs,  geese,  and  chickens.  Over  and 
besides  the  tenth  part  of  every  servant's  wages,  wool,  milk, 
honey,  wax,  cheese,  and  butter  ;  yea,  and  they  look  so 
narrowly  after  their  profits  that  the   poor  wife  must  be 

*  Droysen,  GescJiichte  dtr  'preussischen  Politik,  ii.  i.  p.  309  fF.  (5  vols., 
Berlin,  1865-1886)  ;  Boos,  Thomas  und  Felix  Platter  (Leipsic,  1876),  p.  31. 


HATRED    OF   THE    CLERGY  97 

countable  to  them  for  every  tenth  egg,  or  else  she  getteth 
not  her  rights  at  Easter,  and  shall  be  taken  as  a  heretic." 
As  matter  of  fact,  many  of  these  tithes,  extorted  in  the 
name  of  the  Church,  did  not  go  into  the  pockets  of  the 
clergy  at  all,  but  were  seized  by  the  feudal  superior  and 
went  to  increase  his  revenues.  Popular  feeling,  however, 
seldom  discriminates,  and  feudal  and  clerical  dues  were 
regarded  as  belonging  to  one  system  of  intolerable  oppres- 
sion. Besides,  the  rapacity  of  Churchmen  went  far  beyond 
the  exaction  of  the  tithes.  "  I  see,"  said  a  Spaniard, 
"  that  we  can  scarcely  get  anything  from  Christ's  ministers 
but  for  money ;  at  baptism  money,  at  bishoping  money, 
at  marriage  money,  for  confession  money — no,  not  extreme 
unction  without  money !  They  will  ring  no  bells  without 
money,  no  burial  in  the  church  without  money ;  so  that  it 
seemeth  that  Paradise  is  shut  up  from  them  that  have  no 
money.  The  rich  is  buried  in  the  church,  the  poor  in  the 
churchyard.  The  rich  man  may  marry  with  his  nearest 
kin,  but  the  poor  not  so,  albeit  he  be  ready  to  die  for  love 
of  her.  The  rich  may  eat  flesh  in  Lent,  but  the  poor  may 
not,  albeit  fish  perhaps  be  much  dearer.  The  rich  man 
may  readily  get  large  Indulgences,  but  the  poor  none, 
because  he  wanteth   money  to  pay  for  them."^ 

In  spite  of  this  hatred  of  the  priests,  it  will  be  found 
that  almost  every  insurrectionary  movement  was  im- 
pregnated by  some  sentiment  of  enthusiastic  religion,  with 
which  was  blended  some  confused  dream  that  the  kingdom 
of  God  might  be  set  up  on  earth,  if  only  the  priests  were 
driven  out  of  the  land.  This  religious  element  drew  some 
of  its  strength  from  the  Lollard  movement  in  England  and 
from  the  Taborite  in  Bohemia,  but  after  1476  it  had  a  dis- 
tinctly German  character.  Its  connection  with  what  may 
almost  be  called  the  epidemic  of  pilgrimages,  the  strongly 
increased  veneration  for  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and  the  in- 
junctions laid  upon  the  confederates  in  some  of  the 
revolutionary  movements  to  repeat  so  many  Pater  Rosters 

*  These  quotations  have  been  taken  from  Seebohm,  The  Era  of  the  Pro- 
teitant  Jlevolution,  pp.  57,  58  (London,  1875). 

J* 


98  SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

and  Ave  Marias,  seem  to  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  much 
of  that  revival  of  an  enthusiastic  and  superstitious  religion 
which  marked  the  last  half  of  the  fifteenth  century  may  be 
regarded  as  an  attempt  to  create  a  popular  religion  apart 
from  priests  and  clergy  of  all  kinds. 

One  of  the  earhest  of  these  popular  uprisings  occurred 
at  Gotha  in  1391,  when  the  peasantry  of  the  neighbour- 
hood and  many  of  the  burghers  of  the  town  rose  against 
the  exactions  of  the  Jews,  and  demanded  their  expulsion. 
It  was  an  insurrection  of  debtors  against  usurers,  and  was 
in  the  end  put  down  by  the  majority  of  the  citizens.  From 
this  date  onwards  to  1470  similar  risings  took  place  in 
many  parts  of  Germany,  prompted  by  the  same  or  like 
causes — the  exactions  of  Jews,  priests,  or  nobles.  The 
years  1431-1432  saw  a  great  Hussite  propaganda  carried 
on  all  over  Europe.  Countries  were  flooded  with  Hussite 
proclamations,  and  traversed  by  Hussite  emissaries.  Paul 
Crawar  was  sent  to  Scotland,  and  others  like  him  to  Spain, 
to  the  Netherlands,  and  to  East  Prussia.  They  taught 
among  other  things  that  the  Old  Testament  law  about 
tithes  had  no  place  within  the  Christian  Church,  and  that 
Christian  tithes  were  originally  free-will  offerings, — a  state- 
ment pecuUarly  acceptable  to  the  German  peasantry.  All 
Germany  had  learnt  by  this  time  how  Bohemian  peasants, 
trained  and  led  by  men  belonging  to  the  lesser  nobility, 
had  routed  in  two  memorable  campaigns  the  imperial 
armies  led  by  the  Emperor  himself,  and  how  they  had 
begun  even  to  invade  Germany.  The  chroniclers  speak  of 
the  anxiety  of  the  governing  classes,  civic  and  rural,  when 
they  recognised  the  strength  of  the  feelings  excited  by  this 
propaganda.  The  Hussite  doctrine  of  tithes  appears  here- 
after in  most  of  the  peasant  programmes. 

A  still  more  powerful  impulse  to  revolts  was  given  by 
the  tragic  fate  of  Charles  the  Bold  of  Burgundy.  Charles 
was  the  ideal  feudal  autocrat.  He  was  looked  up  to  and 
imitated  by  the  feudal  princes  of  Germany  in  the  fifteenth 
as  was  Louis  xiv.  by  their  descendants  in  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century.    The  common  people  regarded  him  as 


HANS    BOHM  99 

the  typical  feudal  tyrant,  and  the  hateful  impression  which 
his  arrogance,  his  vindictiveness,  and  his  oppression  of  the 
poor  made  upon  them  comes  out  in  the  folk-songs  of  the 
period : 

"Er  scliazt  sich  kiinig  Alexander  gleich ; 

Er  wolt  bezwingen  alle  Reich, 

Das  wante  Got  in  kurzer  stund." 

He  even  came  to  be  considered  by  them  as  one  of  the 
Antichrists  who  were  to  appear,  and  for  years  after  his 
death  at  Nancy  (1477)  many  believed  that  he  was  alive, 
expiating  his  sins  on  a  prolonged  pilgrimage. 

When  this  great  potentate,  who  was  believed  to  have 
boasted  that  there  were  three  rulers — God  in  heaven, 
Lucifer  in  hell,  and  himself  on  earth — was  defeated  at 
Granson,  routed  at  Morat,  routed  and  slain  at  Nancy,  and 
that  by  Swiss  peasants,  the  exultation  was  immense,  and  it 
was  believed  that  the  peasantry  might  inherit  the  earth.^ 

§  6.  The  religious  Socialism  of  Hans  Bohm. 

During  the  last  years  of  this  memorable  Burgundian 
war  a  strange  movement  arose  in  the  very  centre  of 
Germany,  within  the  district  which  may  be  roughly  defined 
as  the  triangle  whose  points  were  the  towns  of  Aschaffen- 
burg,  Wiirzburg,  and  Crailsheim,  in  the  secluded  valleys  of 
the  Spessart  and  the  Taubergrund.  A  young  man,  Hans 
Bohm  (Boheim,  Bohaim),  belonging  to  the  very  lowest 
class  of  society,  below  the  peasant,  who  wandered  from 
one  country  festival  or  church  ale  to  another,  and  played 
on  the  small  drum  or  on  the  dudelsack  (rude  bagpipes),  or 

*  Liliencron,  Die  Jiistorischen  Volkslieder  der  Deufschen  vom  dreizehnten 
his  zum  sechzehnten  Jakrhundert,  ii.  No.  146  (Leipzig,  1865-1869)  ;  cf.  also 
131,  132,  133,  136,  137,  138-147.  Konrad  Stolle,  jiastorat  Erfurt,  collected 
all  the  information  lie  could  from  '  priests,  clerical  and  lay  students,  mer- 
chants, burghers,  peasants,  pilgrims,  knights  and  other  good  people,"  and 
wove  it  all  into  a  Thv.ringian  Chronicle  which  forms  the  33rd  volume  of  the 
Bihliotliek  des  literarischen  Vcreins  in  Stuttgart.  It  reflects  the  opinions  ot 
the  time  almost  as  faithfully  as  the  folk-songs  do,  and  contains  the  aboie 
quoted  saying  of  Charles  ;  cf.  pp.  61  ff. 


100  SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

sang  soDgs  for  the  dancers,  was  suddenly  awakened  to  a 
sense  of  spiritual  things  by  the  discourse  of  a  wandering 
Franciscan.  He  was  utterly  uneducated.  He  did  not 
even  know  the  Creed.  He  had  visions  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin,  who  appeared  to  him  in  the  guise  of  a  lady  dressed 
in  white,  called  him  to  be  a  preacher,  and  promised  him 
further  revelations,  which  he  received  from  time  to  time. 
His  home  was  the  village  of  Helmstadt  in  the  Taubcr 
valley ;  and  the  most  sacred  spot  he  knew  was  a  chapel 
dedicated  to  the  Virgin  at  the  small  village  of  Niklashausen 
on  the  Tauber.  The  chapel  had  been  granted  an  indulg- 
ence, and  was  the  scene  of  small  pilgrimages.  Hans  Bohra 
appeared  suddenly  on  the  Sunday  in  Mid-Lent  (March 
24th,  1476),  solemnly  burnt  his  rude  drum  and  bagpipes 
before  the  crowd  of  people,  and  declared  that  he  had 
hitherto  ministered  to  the  sins  and  vanities  of  the  villagers, 
but  that  henceforth  he  was  going  to  be  a  preacher  of  grace. 
He  had  been  a  lad  of  blameless  life,  and  his  character 
gave  force  to  his  words.  He  related  his  visions,  and  the 
people  believed  him.  It  was  a  period  when  an  epidemic  of 
pilgrimage  was  sweeping  over  Europe,  and  the  pilgrims 
spread  the  news  of  the  prophet  far  and  wide.  Crowds 
came  to  hear  him  from  the  neighbouring  valleys.  His 
fame  spread  to  more  distant  parts,  and  chroniclers  declare 
that  on  some  days  he  preached  to  audiences  of  from  twenty 
to  thirty  thousand  persons.  His  pulpit  was  a  barrel  set  on 
end,  or  the  window  of  a  farmhouse,  or  the  branch  of  a  tree. 
He  assured  his  hearers  that  the  holiest  spot  on  earth,  holier 
by  far  than  Rome,  was  the  chapel  of  Our  Lady  at  Niklas- 
hausen, and  that  true  religion  consisted  in  doing  honour 
to  the  Blessed  Virgin.  He  denounced  all  priests  in  un- 
measured terms :  they  were  worse  than  Jews  ;  they  might 
be  converted  for  a  while,  but  as  soon  as  they  went  back 
among  their  fellows  they  were  sure  to  become  backsliders. 
He  railed  against  the  Emperor :  he  was  a  miscreant,  who 
supported  the  whole  vile  crew  of  princes,  over-lords,  tax- 
gatherers,  and  other  oppressors  of  the  poor.  He  scoffed  at 
the   Pope.     He   denied  tlie  existence  of  Purgatory :  good 


HANS    BOHM  101 

men  went  directly  to  heaven  and  bad  men  went  to  hell. 
The  day  was  coming,  he  declared,  when  every  prince,  even 
the  Emperor  himself,  must  work  for  his  day's  wages  like  all 
poor  people.  He  asserted  that  taxes  of  all  kinds  were  evil, 
and  should  not  be  paid ;  that  fish,  game,  and  meadow  lands 
were  common  property ;  that  all  men  were  brethren,  and 
should  share  alike.  When  his  sermon  was  finished  the 
crowd  of  devotees  knelt  round  the  "  holy  youth,"  and  he, 
blessing  them,  pardoned  their  sins  in  God's  name.  Then 
the  crowd  surged  round  him,  tearing  at  his  clothes  to  get 
some  scrap  of  cloth  to  take  home  and  worship  as  a  relic; 
and  the  Niklashausen  chapel  became  rich  with  the  offer- 
ings of  the  thousands  of  pilgrims. 

The  authorities,  lay  and  clerical,  paid  little  attention 
to  him  at  first.  Some  princes  and  some  cities  (Nurnberg, 
for  example)  prohibited  their  subjects  from  going  to  Nik- 
lashausen ;  but  the  prophet  was  left  untouched.  He 
came  to  believe  that  his  words  ought  to  be  translated  into 
actions.  One  Sunday  he  asked  his  followers  to  meet  him 
on  the  next  Sunday,  bringing  their  swords  and  leaving  their 
wives  and  children  at  home.  The  Bishop  of  Wiirzburg, 
hearing  this,  sent  a  troop  of  thirty-four  horsemen,  who 
seized  the  prophet,  flung  him  on  a  horse,  and  carried  him 
away  to  the  bishop's  fortress  of  Frauenberg  near  Wiirzburg. 
His  followers  had  permitted  his  capture,  and  seemed  dazed 
by  it.  In  a  day  or  two  they  recovered  their  courage,  and, 
exhorted  by  an  old  peasant  who  had  received  a  vision,  and 
headed  by  four  Franconian  knights,  they  marched  against 
Frauenberg  and  surrounded  it.  They  expected  its  walls 
to  fall  like  those  of  Jericho;  when  they  were  disappointed 
they  lingered  for  some  days,  and  then  gradually  dispersed. 
Hans  himself,  after  examination,  was  condemned  to  be 
burnt  as  a  heretic.  He  died  singing  a  folk-hymn  in  praise 
of  the  Blessed  Virgin. 

His  death  did  not  end  the  faith  of  his  followers.  In 
spite  of  severe  prohibitions,  the  pilgrimages  went  on  and 
the  gifts  accumulated.  A  neighbouring  knight  sacked  the 
chapel  and  carried  away  the  treasure,  which  he  was  forced 


102  SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

to  share  with  his  neighbours.     Still  the  pilgrimages  con 
tinned,  until  at  last  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  removed 
the  priest  and  tore  down  the  building,  hoping  thereby  to 
destroy  the  movement. 

The  memory  of  Hans  Bohm  lived  among  the  common 
people,  peasants  and  artisans;  for  the  lower  classes  of 
Wiirzburg  and  the  neighbouring  towns  had  been  followers 
of  the  movement.  A  religious  social  movement,  purely 
jGerman,  had  come  into  being,  and  was  not  destined  to  die 
soon.  The  effects  of  Hans  Bohm's  teaching  appear  in 
almost  all  subsequent  peasant  and  artisan  revolts.^  Even 
Sebastian  Brand  takes  the  Niklashausen  pilgrims  as  his 
type  of  those  enthusiasts  who  are  not  contented  with  the 
revelations  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  but  must  seek 
a  special  prophet  of  their  own : 

"Man  weis  doch  aus  der  Schrift  so  viel, 
Alls  altem  und  aus  neueni  Bunde, 
Es  braucht  nicht  wieder  neuer  Kunde, 
Dennoch  wallfahrten  sie  zur  Klausen 
Des  Sackpfeifers  von  Nicklashausen." ' 

And  the  Niklashausen  pilgrimage  was  preserved  in  the 
memories  of  the  people  by  a  lengthy  folk-song  which  Lili- 
encron  has  printed  in  his  collection.^ 

From  this  time  onwards  there  was  always  some  tinge 
of  religious  enthusiasm  in  the  social  revolts,  where  peasant 
and  poor  burgher  stood  shoulder  to  shoulder  against  the 
ruling  powers  in  country  and  in  town. 

The  peasants  within  the  lands  of  the  Abbot  of  Kemp  ten, 
north-east  of  the  Lake  of  Constance,  had  for  two  genera- 
tions protested  against  the  way  in  which  the  authorities 

^  The  best  account  of  tliis  movement  is  to  be  found  in  an  article  con- 
tributed to  the  Archiv  des  historischen  Vereins  von  Unterfranken  und 
Aschaffenhurg,  xiv.  iii.  1,  where  Hans  Bohm's  sayings  have  been  carefully 
collected.  Pastor  Konrad  Stolle's  Chronicle,  published  in  the  library  of 
the  Stuttgart  Literary  Society  {Bihlioihek  des  literarischen  Vereins  in 
Stuttgart,  xxxiii.),  is  also  valuable.  A  list  of  authorities  may  also  be  found 
in  Ullmann's  Reformers  before  the  Reformation  (Eng.  trans.),  i.  377  ff. 

2  Narrenschiff,  c.  xi.  1.  14-18. 

»  Die  historischen  Volkslieder  der  Deutsclien  vom  IS  bis  16  Jahrhundert, 
Id.  No.  148. 


BUNDSOHUH    REVOLTS  103 

were  treating  them  (1420—1490).  They  rose  in  open 
revolt  in  1491—1492.  It  was  a  purely  agrarian  rising 
to  begin  with,  caused  by  demands  made  on  them  by  their 
over-lord  not  sanctioned  by  the  old  customs  expressed  in 
the  Weisthiimer;  but  the  lower  classes  of  the  town  of 
Kempten  made  common  cause  with  the  insurgents.  Yet 
there  are  distinct  traces  of  impregnation  with  religious 
enthusiasm  not  unlike  that  which  inspired  the  Hans  Bohm 
movement.  The  rising  was  crushed,  and  the  leaders  who 
escaped  took  refuge  in  Switzerland. 

§  7.  Bundschuh  Revolts. 

In  the  widespread  social  revolt  which  broke  out  in 
Elsass  in  1493,  the  peasants  were  supported  by  the  towns ; 
demands  were  made  for  the  abolition  of  the  imperial  and 
the  ecclesiastical  courts  of  justice,  for  the  reduction  of 
ecclesiastical  property,  for  the  plundering  of  Jews  who 
had  been  fattening  upon  usury,  and  for  the  curbing  of  the 
power  of  the  priests.  The  Germans  had  a  proverb,  "  The 
poor  man  must  tie  his  shoes  with  string,"  and  the  "  tied 
shoe  "  {Bundschuh),  the  poor  man's  shoe,  became  the  emblem 
^  of  this  and  subsequent  social  revolts,  while  their  motto  was, 
^  "  Only  what  is  just  before  God."  This  rebellion,  which 
was  prematurely  betrayed,  did  not  lack  prominent  leaders. 
One  of  them  was  Hans  Ulman,  the  burgomeister  of 
Schlettstadt,  who  died  on  the  scaffold  affirming  the  justice 
of  the  demands  which  he  and  his  companions  had  made, 
and  predicting  their  future  triumph. 

In  1501  the  peasants  of  Kempten  and  the  neighbour- 
ing districts  again  rose  in  rebellion,  and  were  again  joined 
by  the  poorer  townspeople.  In  the  year  following,  1502,  a 
revolt  was  planned  having  for  its  headquarters  the  village 
of  Untergrombach,  near  Speyer ;  it  spread  into  Elsass,  along 
the  Neckar  and  down  the  Ehine.  The  Bundschuh  banner 
was  again  unfurled.  It  was  made  of  blue  silk,  with  a 
white  cross,  the  emblem  of  Switzerland,  in  the  centre.  It 
was  adorned  with  a  picture  of  the  crucified  Christ,  a  Bund 


104  SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

schuh  on  the  one  side,  and  a  kneeling  peasant  on  the  other. 
The  motto  was  again,  "  Only  what  is  just  before  God." 
Every  associate  promised  to  repeat  five  times  a  day  the 
Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Am  Maria.  The  patron  saints  were 
declared  to  be  the  Blessed  Virgin  and  St.  John.  The 
movement  was  strongly  anti-clerical.  The  leaders  taught 
that  there  could  be  no  deliverance  from  oppression  until 
tlie  priests  were  driven  from  the  land,  and  until  the  pro- 
perty of  the  nobles  and  the  priests  was  confiscated  and 
their  power  broken.  Tithes,  feudal  exactions  of  all  kinds, 
and  all  social  inequalities  were  denounced;  water,  forest 
and  pasture  lands  were  declared  to  be  the  common  property 
of  all.  The  leaders  recognised  the  rule  of  the  Emperor 
as  over-lord,  but  denounced  all  intermediate  jurisdictions. 
The  plan  was  to  raise  the  peasants  and  the  townspeople 
throughout  all  Germany,  and  to  call  upon  the  Swiss  to 
aid  them  in  winning  their  deliverance  from  oppression. 
The  revolt  was  put  down  with  savage  cruelty ;  most  of 
the  leaders  were  quartered.  Many  escaped  to  Switzerland, 
and  lay  hid  among  the  Alpine  valleys. 

One  of  these  was  Joss  Fritz,  who  had  been  a  soldier 
(landsknecht) — a  man  with  many  qualities  of  leadership. 
He  had  tenacity  of  purpose,  great  powers  of  organisation, 
and  gifts  of  persuasion.  He  vowed  to  restore  the  Bundschuh 
League.  He  remained  years  in  hiding  in  Switzerland, 
maturing  his  plans.  Then  he  returned  secretly  to  his 
own  people.  He  seems  to  have  secured  an  appointment 
as  forester  to  a  nobleman  whose  lands  lay  near  the  town  of 
Ereiburg  in  the  Breisgau ;  and  there,  in  the  small  village 
of  Lehen,  he  began  to  weave  together  again  the  broken 
threads  of  the  Bundschuh  League.  He  mingled  with  the 
poorer  people  in  the  taverns,  at  church  ales,  on  the  village 
greens  on  festival  days.  He  spoke  of  the  justice  of 
God  and  the  wickedness  of  the  world.  He  expounded 
the  old  principles  of  the  Bundschuh  with  some  few  varia- 
tions. Indiscriminate  hatred  of  priests  seems  to  have  been 
abandoned.  Most  of  the  village  priests  were  peasants, 
and  suffered,  like  them,  from  overbearing  superiors.     The 


BUND8CHUH    REVOLTS  105 

pariBh  priest  of  Lelien  became  a  strong  supporter  of  the 
Bundschuhy  and  told  his  parishioners  that  all  its  ideas 
could  be  proved  from  the  word  of  God.  Joss  Fritz  won 
over  to  his  side  the  "gilds"  of  beggars,  strolling  musicians, 
all  kinds  of  vagrants  who  could  be  useful.  They  carried 
his  messages,  summoned  the  people  to  his  meetings  in 
quiet  spaces  in  the  woods,  and  were  active  assistants.  At 
these  meetings  Joss  Fritz  and  his  lieutenant  Jerome,  a 
journeyman  baker,  expounded  the  Scriptures  "  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  simply,"  and  proved  all  the 
demands  of  the  Bundschuh  from  the  word  of  God. 

When  the  country  seemed  almost  ripe  for  the  rising, 
Joss  Fritz  resolved  to  prepare  the  banner  as  secretly  as 
possible.  It  was  easy  to  get  the  blue  silk  and  sew  the 
white  cross  on  its  ground ;  the  difficulty  was  to  find  an 
artist  sympathetic  enough  to  paint  the  emblems,  and  cour- 
ageous enough  to  keep  the  secret.  The  banner  was  at  last 
painted.  The  crucified  Christ  in  the  centre,  a  peasant 
kneeling  in  prayer  on  the  one  side  and  the  Bundschuh  on 
the  other,  the  figures  of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  St.  John, 
and  the  pictures  of  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor.  The 
motto,  "  0  Lord,  help  the  righteous,"  was  added,  and  the 
banner  with  its  striking  symbolism  was  complete.  The 
League  had  the  old  programme  with  some  alterations: — 
no  masters  but  God,  the  Pope,  and  the  Emperor,  no 
usury,  all  debts  to  be  cancelled,  and  the  clauses  mentioned 
above.  The  leaders  boasted  that  their  league  extended  as 
far  as  the  city  of  Koln  (Cologne),  and  that  the  Swiss  would 
march  at  their  head.  But  the  secret  leaked  out  before  the 
(late  planned  for  the  general  rising ;  and  the  revolt  was 
mercilessly  stamped  out  (1512—1513).  Its  leader  escaped 
with  the  Bundschuh  banner  wound  round  his  body  under 
his  clothes.  In  four  years  he  was  back  again  at  his  work 
(1517).  In  a  very  short  time  his  agents,  the  "gild"  of 
beggars,  wandering  minstrels,  poor  priests,  pilgrims  to  local 
shrines,  pardon-sellers,  begging  friars,  and  even  lepers,  had 
leagued  the  peasantry  and  the  poorer  artisans  in  the  towns 
in  one  vast  conspiracy  which  permeated  the  entire  district 


106  SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

between  the  VoRgos  and  the  Black  Forest,  including  the 
whole  of  Baden  and  Elsass.  The  plot  was  again  betrayed 
before  the  plans  of  the  leaders  were  matured,  and  the 
partial  risings  were  easily  put  down ;  but  when  the 
authorities  set  themselves  to  make  careful  investigations, 
they  were  aghast  at  the  extent  of  the  movement.  The 
peasants  of  the  country  districts  and  the  populace  of  the 
towns  had  been  bound  together  to  avenge  common  wrongs. 
The  means  of  secret  communication  had  been  furnished  by 
country  innkeepers,  old  landsknechts,  pedlars,  parish  priests, 
as  well  as  by  the  vagrants  above  mentioned  ;  and  the  names 
of  some  of  the  subordinate  leaders — "  long  "  John, "  crooked  " 
Peter,  "  old  "  Kuntz — show  the  classes  from  which  they 
were  drawn.  It  was  discovered  that  the  populace  of  Weisen- 
burg  had  come  to  an  agreement  with  the  people  of  Hagenau 
(both  towns  were  in  Elsass)  to  slay  the  civic  councillors 
and  judges  and  all  the  inhabitants  of  noble  descent,  to 
refuse  payment  of  all  imperial  and  ecclesiastical  dues,  and 
that  the  Swiss  had  promised  to  come  to  their  assistance. 

One  might  ahnost  say  that  between  the  years  1503 
and  1517  the  social  revolution  was  permanently  established 
in  the  southern  districts  of  the  Empire,  from  Elsass  in  the 
west  to  Carinthia  and  the  Steiermarck  in  the  east.  It  is 
needless  to  describe  the  risings  in  detail.  They  were  not 
purely  peasant  rebellions,  for  the  townspeople  were  almost 
always  involved ;  but  they  all  displayed  that  mingling  of 
communist  ideas  and  religious  enthusiasm  of  which  the 
Bundschuh  banner  had  become  the  emblem,  and  which  may 
be  traced  back  to  the  movement  under  Hans  Bohm  as  its 
German  source,  and  perhaps  to  the  earlier  propaganda 
of  the  Hussite  revolutionaries  or  Taborites.  The  later 
decades  of  the  fifteenth  and  the  earlier  years  of  the  six- 
teenth century  were  a  time  of  permanent  social  unrest. 

§  8.  The  Causes  of  the  continuous  RevolU. 

K  we  ask  why  it  was  that  the  peasants,  whose  lot, 
according  to  the   information    given   in   the    Weisthumer, 


THE   CAUSES   OF   THE  SOCIAL   UNREST  107 

could  not  have  been  such  a  very  hard  one,  were  so  ready 
fco  rise  in  rebellion  during  the  last  quarter  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  the  answer  seems  to  be  that  there  must  have 
been  a  growing  change  in  their  circumstances.  Some 
chroniclers  have  described  the  condition  of  the  peasants 
hi  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  and  in  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  and  they  always  dwell  upon  their  misery. 
John  Bohm,  who  wrote  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  says  that  "  their  lot  was  hard  and  pitiable,"  and 
calls  them  "slaves."^  Sebastian  Frank  (1534),  Sebastian 
Munster  (1546),  H.  Pantaleone  (1570),  an  Italian  who 
wrote  a  description  of  Germany,  all  agree  with  Bohm. 
Frank  adds  that  the  peasants  hate  every  kind  of  cleric, 
good  or  bad,  and  that  their  speech  is  full  of  gibes  against 
priests  and  monks ;  while  Pantaleone  observes  that  many 
skilled  workmen,  artisans,  artists,  and  men  of  learning 
have  sprung  from  this  despised  peasant  class.  There  must 
have  been  a  great  change  for  the  worse  in  the  condition  of 
the  poorer  dwellers  both  in  town  and  in  country. 

So  far  as  the  townsmen  are  concerned,  nothing  need  be 
added  to  what  has  already  been  said;  but  the  causes  of 
the  growing  depression  of  the  peasantry  were  more  com- 
plicated. The  universal  testimony  of  contemporaries  is 
!that  the  gradual  introduction  of  Eoman  law  brought  the 
greatest  change,  by  placing  a  means  of  universal  oppression 
In  the  hands  of  the  over-lords.  There  is  no  need  to 
suppose  that  the  lawyers  who  introduced  the  new  juris- 
prudence meant  to  use  it  to  degrade  and  oppress  the 
peasant  class.  A  slight  study  of  the  Weisthumer  shows 
how  complicated  and  varied  was  this  consuetudinary  law 
which  regulated  the  relations  between  peasant  and  over- 
lord. It  was  natural,  when  great  estates  grew  to  be 
principalities,  whether  lay  or  clerical,  that  the  over-lords 
should  seek  for  some  principle  of  codification  or  reduction 
to  uniformity.  It  had  been  the  custom  for  centuries  to 
attempt  to  simplify  the  ruder  and  involved  German  codes 
by   bringing   them   into  harmony  with   the   principles   of 

*  Omnivm  Oentium  Mores,  iii.  xii.  (first  printed  in  1676). 


108  SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

Roman  law,  and  this  idea  had  received  a  powerful  impetus 
from  the  Renaissaiicc  movement.  But  when  the  bewilder- 
ing multiplicity  of  customary  usages  which  had  governed  the 
relations  of  cultivators  to  over-lords  was  simplified  according 
to  the  ideas  of  Roman  law,  the  result  was  in  the  highest 
degree  dangerous  to  the  free  peasantry  of  Germany.  The 
conception  of  strict  individual  proprietorship  tended  to 
displace  the  indefinite  conception  of  communal  proprietor- 
ship, and  the  peasants  could  only  appear  in  the  guise  of 
tenants  on  long  leases,  or  serfs  who  might  have  some  per- 
sonal rights  but  no  rights  of  property,  or  slaves  who  had 
no  rights  at  all.  The  new  jurisprudence  began  by  attacking 
the  common  lands,  pastures,  and  forests.  The  passion  for 
the  chase,  which  became  the  more  engrossing  as  the  right 
to  wage  private  war  grew  more  and  more  dangerous,  led 
to  the  nobles  insisting  on  the  individual  title  to  all  forest 
lands,  and  to  the  publication  of  such  forest  laws  as  we  find 
made  in  Wiirtemberg,  where  anyone  found  trespassing  with 
gun  or  cross-bow  was  liable  to  lose  one  eye.  The  attempt 
to  reduce  a  free  peasantry  in  possession  of  communal  pro- 
perty to  tenants  on  long  lease,  then  to  serfs,  and,  lastly,  to 
slaves,  may  be  seen  in  the  seventy  years'  struggle  between 
the  Abbots  of  Kempten  and  their  peasants.  These  spiritual 
lords  carried  on  the  contest  with  every  kind  of  force  and 
chicanery  they  could  command.  They  enlarged  illegally 
the  jurisdiction  of  their  spiritual  courts;  they  prevented 
the  poor  people  who  opposed  them  from  coming  to  the 
Lord's  Table;  they  actually  falsified  their  title-deeds,  in- 
serting provisions  which  were  not  originally  contained  in 
them. 

The  case  of  the  Kempten  lands  was,  no  doubt,  an 
extreme  one,  though  it  could  be  matched  by  others.  But 
the  point  to  be  noticed  is  the  immense  opportunities  for 
oppression  which  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  over- 
lords by  the  new  jurisprudence,  and  the  temptation  to  make 
use  of  them  when  their  interests  seemed  to  require  it,  or 
when  their  peasantry  began  to  grow  refractory  or  became 
too  prosperous.      The    economic   changes   which  were  at 


CAUSES   OF   THE   SOCIAL   UNREST  109 

work  throughout  the  fifteenth  century  gave  occasion  for 
the  use  of  the  powers  which  the  new  jurisdiction  had 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  landlords.  The  economic  revolu- 
tion from  the  first  impoverished  the  nobles  of  Germany ; 
while,  in  its  beginnings  and  until  after  the  great  rise  in 
prices,  it  rather  helped  the  peasantry.  They  had  a  better 
market  for  their  pioduce,  and  tliey  so  profited  by  it  that 
the  burghers  spoke  of  denying  them  the  right  of  free 
markets,  on  the  ground  that  they  had  begun  to  usurp  the 
place  of  the  merchants  and  were  trafficking  in  gold  by 
lending  money  on  interest.  The  competition  in  luxurious 
dress  and  living,  which  the  impoverished  nobles  carried 
on  with  the  rich  burghers,  made  the  former  still  poorer 
and  more  reckless.  We  read  of  a  noble  lady  in  Swabia 
who,  rather  than  be  outshone  at  a  tournament,  sold  a 
village  and  all  her  rights  over  it  in  order  to  buy  a  blue 
velvet  dress.  The  nobles,  becoming  poorer  and  poorer, 
saw  their  own  peasants  making  money  to  such  an  extent 
that  they  were,  comparatively  speaking,  much  better  off 
than  themselves,  so  that  in  Westphalia  it  was  said  that  a 
peasant  could  get  credit  more  easily  than  five  nobles. 

Moreover,  the  peasants  did  not  appear  to  be  as  sub- 
missive to  their  lords  as  they  once  had  been.  Nor  was  it 
to  be  wondered  at.  The  creation  of  the  landsJcnechts  had 
put  new  thoughts  into  their  heads.  The  days  of  the  old 
fighting  chivalry  were  over,  and  the  strength  of  armies  was 
measured  by  the  number  and  discipline  of  the  infantry. 
The  victories  of  the  Swiss  over  Charles  the  Bold  had  made 
the  peasant  or  artisan  soldier  a  power.  Kings  and  princes 
raised  standing  armies,  recruited  from  the  country  districts 
or  from  among  the  wilder  and  more  restless  of  the  town 
population.  The  folk-songs  are  full  of  the  doings  of  these 
plebeian  soldiers.  When  the  landsknecht  visited  his  rela- 
tions in  village  or  in  town,  swaggered  about  in  his  gorgeous 
parti-coloured  clothes,  his  broad  hat  adorned  with  huge 
feathers,  his  great  gauntlets  and  his  weapons ;  when  he 
showed  a  gold  chain  or  his  ducats,  or  a  jewel  he  had  won 
as  his  share  of  the  booty ;  wlien  his  old  neighbours  saw  his 


110  SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

dress  and  gait  imitated  by  the  young  burghers, — he  became 
a  centre  of  admiration,  and  his  relations  began  to  hold 
themselves  high  on  his  account.  They  acquired  a  new 
independence  of  character,  a  new  impatience  against  all 
that  prevented  them  from  rising  in  the  world.  It  has 
scarcely  been  sufficiently  noted  how  most  of  the  leaders 
in  the  plebeian  risings  were  disbanded  landshnechts} 

The  new  jurisprudence  was  a  very  effectual  instrument 
in  the  hands  of  an  impoverished  landlord  class  to  ease  the 
peasant  of  his  superfluous  wealth,  and  to  keep  him  in  his 
proper  place.  It  was  used  almost  universally,  and  the 
peasant  rebellions  were  the  natural  consequences.  But  the 
more  determined  peasant  revolts,  which  began  with  the 
Bundschuh  League,  arose  at  a  time  when  life  was  hard  for 
peasant  and  artisan  alike. 

The  last  decade  of  the  fifteenth  century  and  the  first 
of  the  sixteenth  contained  a  number  of  years  in  which 
the  harvest  failed  almost  entirely  over  all  or  in  pa^ts 
of  Germany.  They  began  with  1490,  and  in  that  year 
contemporary  writers,  Hke  Trithemius,  declare  that  the  lot 
of  the  poor  was  almost  unbearable.  The  bad  harvests 
of  1491  and  1492  made  things  w^orse.  In  1493,  the  year 
which  saw  the  foundation  of  the  Bundschuh,  the  state  of 
matters  may  be  guessed  from  the  fact  that  men  came  all 
the  way  from  the  Tyrol  to  the  upper  reaches  of  the  Main, 
where  the  harvest  was  comparatively  good,  bought  barley 

1  Landsknecht  or  lanzknecht  (for  the  words  are  the  same)  is  often  trans- 
literated lance-Jcnifjht  in  English  State  Papers  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The 
English  word,  suggesting  as  it  does  cavalry  armed  with  lances,  is  very  mis 
leading.  The  victories  of  the  Swiss  peasants,  and  their  reputation  as  soldiers, 
suggested  to  the  Emperor  Frederick,  and  especially  to  his  son,  the  Emperoi 
Maximilian,  the  formation  of  troops  of  infantry  recruited  from  the  peasantry 
and  from  the  lower  classes  of  townsmen.  Troops  of  cavalry  of  a  like  oiigin 
were  also  formed,  and  they  were  called  reiters  or  reisiger.  These  mercenaries 
frequently  gained  much  money  both  from  pay  and  from  plunder,  and  were 
regarded  as  heroes  by  the  members  of  the  classes  from  whom  they  had 
sprung.  Liliencron's  Die  historischen  Volkslicder  vom  ISten  his  zum  16ten 
Jahrhundert  contains  many  folk-songs  celebrating  their  prowess.  The 
history  of  the  gradual  rise  and  growing  importance  of  these  peasant  soldiers 
is  given  in  Schult^,  Deutsches  Lchen  im  IJfUn  and  15 ten  Jahrhundert,  pp 
589  f.  (Grosse  Ausgabe),  and  in  the  authorities  there  quoted. 


FAMINE    YEARS  11] 

there  for  five  times  its  usual  price,  carried  it  on  pack- 
horses  by  little  frequeuted  paths  to  their  own  country,  and 
sold  it  at  a  profit. 

In  1499  the  Swiss  refused  to  submit  to  the  imperial 
proposals  for  consolidating  the  Empire.  Maximilian  or 
his  government  in  the  Tyrol  resolved  to  punish  them,  and 
the  Swabian  League  were  to  be  the  executioners.  The 
Swiss,  highly  incensed,  had  declared  that  if  they  were 
forced  into  war  it  would  be  a  war  of  extermination.  They 
were  as  bad  as  their  word.  An  eye-witness  saw  whole 
villages  in  the  wasted  districts  forsaken  by  the  men,  and 
the  women  gathered  in  troops,  feeding  on  herbs  and  roots, 
and  seeing  with  the  apathy  of  despair  their  ranks  diminish 
day  by  day.^  The  Swiss  war  was  worse  than  many  bad 
harvests  for  the  Hegau  and  other  districts  in  South  Ger- 
many. 

In  1500  the  harvest  failed  over  all  Germany;  1501 
and  1502  were  years  when  the  crops  failed  in  a  number  of 
districts ;  and  in  1503  there  was  another  universally  bad 
harvest.  These  years  of  scarcity  pressed  most  heavily  on  the 
peasant  class.  In  some  districts  of  Brandenburg,  peasants 
were  found  in  the  woods  dead  of  starvation,  with  the  crrass 
which  they  had  been  trying  to  eat  still  in  their  mouths. 
Cities  like  Augsburg  and  Strassburg  bought  grain,  stored 
it  in  magazines,  and  kept  the  poor  alive  by  periodical 
distributions.  This  cycle  of  famine  years  from  1490  to 
1503  was  the  period  when  the  most  determined  and 
desperate  social  risings  took  place,  and  largely  explains 
them.2 

Our  description  of  the  social  conditions  existing  during 
the  period  which  ushered  in  the  Eeformation  has  been 
confined  to  Germany.  The  great  religious  movement  took 
its  origin  in  that  land,  and  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
to  study  the  environment  there.    But  the  universal  economic 

*  "Willibald  Pirkheiraer  in  his  book  on  the  Swiss  war,  chap.  ii.  (GermaD 
ed.,  Basel,  1826). 

'■'  Qothein,  Politische  und  religiose.  Volksbcwegungen  vor  der  ReformaUon 
(Breslau,  1878),  p.  78. 


112  SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

changes  were  producing  social  disturbances  everywhere, 
modified  in  appearance  and  character  by  the  special  con- 
ditions of  the  various  countries  of  Europe.  The  popular 
risings  in  England,  which  began  with  the  gigantic  labour 
strike  under  Wat  Tyler  and  priest  Ball,  and  ended  with 
the  disturbances  during  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.,  were  the 
counterpart  of  the  social  revolt  in  Germany. 

From  all  that  has  been  said,  it  will  be  evident  that  on 
the  eve  of  the  Eeformation  the  condition  of  Europe,  and 
of  Germany  in  particular,  was  one  of  seething  discontent 
and  full  of  bitter  class  hatreds, — the  trading  companies  and 
the  great  capitalists  against  the  "  gilds,"  the  poorer  classes 
against  the  wealthier,  and  the  nobles  against  the  towns. 
This  state  of  things  is  abundantly  reflected  in  the  folk-songs 
of  the  period,  which  best  reveal  the  intimate  feelings  of 
the  people.  For  it  was  an  age  of  song  everywhere,  and 
especially  in  Germany.  Nobles  and  knights,  burghers  and 
peasants,  landshnechts  and  Swiss  soldiers,  priests  and  clerks, 
lawyers  and  merchants — all  expressed  the  feelings  of  their 
class  when  they  sang ;  and  the  folk-songs  give  us  a  wonder- 
ful picture  of  the  class  hatreds  which  were  rending  asunder 
the  old  conditions  of  mediaeval  life,  and  preparing  the  way 
for  a  new  world. 

This  social  ferment  was  increased  by  a  sudden  and 
mysterious  rise  in  prices,  affecting  first  the  articles  of 
foreign  produce,  to  which  the  wealthier  classes  had  become 
greatly  addicted,  and  at  last  the  ordinary  necessaries  of 
life.  The  cause,  it  is  now  believed,  was  not  the  debasing 
of  the  coinage,  for  that  affected  a  narrow  circle  only ;  nor 
was  it  the  importation  of  precious  metals  from  America, 
for  that  came  later ;  it  was  rather  the  increased  output  of 
the  mines  in  Europe.  Whatever  the  cause,  the  thing  was 
to  contemporaries  an  irritating  mystery,  and  each  class  in 
society  was  disposed  to  blame  the  others  for  it.  We  have 
thus  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  a  restless 
social  condition  in  Germany,  caused  in  great  measure  by 
economic  causes  which  no  one  understood,  but  whose  re- 
sults were  painfully  manifest   in   the   crowds  of   sturdy 


SOCIAL   UNREST  113 

beggars  who  thronged  the  roads — the  refuse  of  all  classes 
in  society,  from  the  broken  noble  and  the  disbanded  mer- 
cenary soldier  to  the  ruined  peasant,  the  workman  out  of 
employment,  the  begging  friar,  and  the  "  wandering  student." 
It  was  into  this  mass  of  seething  discontent  that  the  spark 
of  religious  protest  fell — the  one  thing  needed  to  fire  the 
train  and  kindle  the  social  conflagration.  This  was  the 
society  to  which  Luther  spoke,  and  its  discontent  was  the 
sounding-board  which  made  his  words  reverberate. 


CHAPTER  V. 

FAMILY  AND  POPULAR  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  IN  THE 
DECADES  BEFORE  THE   REFORMATION.^ 

§  1.  The  Devotion  of  Germany  to  the  Eoman  Church. 

The  real  roots  of  the  spiritual  life  of  Luther  and  of  tha 
other  Eeformers  ought  to  be  sought  for  in  the  family  and 
in  the  popular  religious  life  of  the  times.  It  is  the  duty  of 
the  historian  to  discover,  if  possible,  what  religious  instruc- 
tion was  given  by  parents  to  children  in  the  pious  homes 
out  of  which  most  of  the  Eeformers  came,  and  what 
religious  influences  confronted  and  surrounded  pious  lads 
after  they  had  left  the  family  circle.      Few  have  cared  to 

*  To  Sources  given  to  Chapter  IV.  add  :  Wackernagel,  Das  deutsche 
Kirchenlied  von  der  dltesten  Zeit  bis  zum  An/ang  des  17  Jahrhunderts 
(Leipzig,  1864-1877)  vols.  i.  ii.  ;  "Rainerii  Sachoni  Summa  de  Cathavis  et 
Leonistis"  in  the  Afagna  Bibliotheca  Patrum,  vol.  xiii.  (Col.  Agrip.  1618),  cf. 
"Coram.  Crit.  de  Rainerii  Sachoni  Snmm.3i "  {Gdttingen  Osterprogramm  of 
1834) ;  Habler,  Das  Wallfahrthuch  des  Hermann  von  Vach,  und  die  Pil- 
gerreisen  der  Deutschen  nach  Santiago  de  Compostella  (Strassburg,  1899)  ; 
Mirdbilia  Eomce  (reprint  by  Parthey,  Berlin,  1869) ;  Munzenberger,  Frank- 
furter und  Magdehurger  Beichibuchlein  (Mainz,  1883) ;  Hasak,  Die  letzte 
Rose,  etc.  (Ratisbon,  1883) ;  Hasak,  Der  christliche  Glaube  des  deutschen 
Volkes  beim  Schluss  des  Mittelalters  (Ratisbon,  1868) ;  Hofler,  DenJcwurdig- 
keiten  der  Charitas  Pirckheimer  {Quellensamml.  z.  frank.  Gesch.  iv.,  1858)  ; 
Konrad  Stolle,  Thilringische  Chronik  (in  Bihliothek  d.  lit.  Vereins  (Stutt- 
gardt),  xxxiii.). 

Later  Books  :  v.  Bezold,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Reformation  (Berlin, 
1890) ;  Janssen,  Geschichte  des  deutschen  Volkesseit  dem  Ausgang  des  Mittel- 
alters (17th  ed.,  1897),  vol.  i.  ;  Briick,  Der  religiose  Unterricht  fiir  Jugend 
und  Folk  in  Deutschland  in  der  zweiten  Rdlfte  des  fiinfzehnten  Jahrhunderts; 
Cruel,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Predigt  im  Mittelalter  (Detwold,  1879) ; 
Dacheux,  Jean  Geiler  de  Keysersberg  (Paris,  1876)  ;  "Walther,  Die  deutsche 
Bihelubersetzung  des  Mittelalters  (Brunswick,  1889) ;  Uhlhorn,  Die  christ- 
liche Liebesthdtigkeit  im  Mittelalter  (Stuttgart,  1887) ;  WUken,  Oeschichts 
der  geistlicTien  Spiele  in  Deutschland  (Gottingen,  1872). 


GERMAN  DEVOTION  TO  ROME         115 

prosecute  the  difficult  task ;  and  it  is  only  within  late 
years  that  the  requisite  material  has  been  accumulated. 
It  has  to  be  souglit  for  in  autobiographies,  diaries,  and 
private  letters ;  in  the  books  of  popular  devotion  which 
the  patience  of  ecclesiastical  archaeologists  is  exhuming  and 
reprinting ;  in  the  references  to  the  pious  confraternities  of 
the  later  Middle  Ages,  and  more  especially  to  the  Kalands 
among  the  artisans,  which  appear  in  town  chronicles,  and 
whose  constitutions  are  being  slowly  unearthed  by  local 
historical  societies ;  in  the  police  regulations  of  towns  and 
country  districts  which  aim  at  curbing  the  power  of  the 
clergy,  and  in  the  edicts  of  princes  attempting  to  enforce 
some  of  the  recommendations  of  the  Councils  of  Constance 
and  Basel ;  in  the  more  popular  hymns  of  the  time,  and  in 
the  sermons  of  the  more  fervent  preachers ;  in  the  pilgrim 
songs  and  the  pilgrim  guide-books ;  and  in  a  variety  of 
other  sources  not  commonly  studied  by  Church  historians. 

On  the  surface  no  land  seemed  more  devoted  to  the 
mediaeval  Church  and  to  the  Pope,  its  head,  than  did 
Germany  in  the  half  century  before  the  Keformation.  A 
cultivated  Italian,  Aleander,  papal  nuncio  at  the  Diet  of 
Worms,  was  astonished  at  the  signs  of  disaffection  he  met 
with  in  1520.^  He  had  visited  Germany  frequently,  and 
he  was  intimately  acquainted  with  many  of  the  northern 
Humanists;  and  his  opinion  was  that  down  to  1510  (the 
date  of  his  last  visit)  he  had  never  been  among  a  people  so 
devoted  to  the  Bishop  of  Eome.  No  nation  had  exhibited 
such  signs  of  delight  at  the  ending  of  the  Schism  and  the 
re-establishment  of  the  "  Peace  of  the  Church."  Tlie 
Italian  Humanists  continually  express  their  wonder  at  the 
strength  of  the  religious  susceptibilities  of  the  Germans ; 
and  the  papal  Curia  looked  upon  German  devotion  as  a 
never-failing  source  of  Eoman  revenue.  The  Germans  dis- 
played an  almost  feverish  anxiety  to  profit  by  all  the 
ordinary  and  extraordinary  means  of  grace.  They  built 
mnumerable  churches ;  their  towns  were  full  of  conventual 

*  Kalkoff,  Die  Depeschen  des  Nuntius  Aleander f  etc.  (Halle  a.  S.  1897), 
pp.  26,  45-48. 


116  POPULAR    RELIGIOUS    LIFE 

foundations ;  they  bought  Indulgences,  went  on  pilgrimages, 
visited  shrines,  reverenced  relics  in  a  way  that  no  othei 
nation  did.     The  piety  of  the  Germans  was  proverbial. 

The  number  of  churches  was  enormous  for  the  popula- 
tion. Almost  every  tiny  village  had  its  chapel,  and  every 
town  of  any  size  had  several  churches.  Church  building 
and  decoration  was  a  feature  of  the  age.  In  the  town  of 
Dantzig  8  new  churches  had  been  founded  or  completed 
during  the  fifteenth  century.  The  "  holy "  city  of  Koln 
(Cologne)  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  contained 
11  great  churches,  19  parish  churches,  22  monasteries,  12 
hospitals,  and  7  6  convents ;  more  than  a  thousand  Masses 
were  said  at  its  altars  every  day.  It  was  exceptionally 
rich  in  ecclesiastical  buildings,  no  doubt ;  but  the  smaller 
town  of  Brunswick  had  15  churches,  over  20  chapels,  5 
monasteries,  6  hospitals,  and  12  Beguine-houses,  and  its 
great  church,  dedicated  to  St.  Blasius,  had  26  altars  served 
by  60  ecclesiastics.     So  it  was  all  over  Germany. 

Besides  the  large  numbers  of  monks  and  nuns  who 
peopled  the  innumerable  monasteries  and  convents,  a  large 
part  of  the  population  belonged  to  some  semi-ecclesiastical 
association.  Many  were  tertiaries  of  St.  Francis ;  many 
were  connected  with  the  Beguines :  Koln  (Cologne)  had 
106  Beguine-houses;  Strassburg,  over  60,  and  Basel, 
over  30. 

The  churches  and  chapels,  monasteries  and  religious 
houses,  received  all  kinds  of  offerings  from  rich  and  poor 
alike.  In  those  days  of  unexampled  burgher  prosperity 
and  wealth,  the  town  churches  became  "  museums  and 
treasure-houses."  The  windows  were  filled  with  pain<^ed 
glass ;  weapons,  armour,  jewels,  pictures,  tapestries  were 
stored  in  the  treasuries  or  adorned  the  walls.  Ancient 
inventories  have  been  preserved  of  some  of  these  ecclesias- 
tical accumulations  of  wealth.  In  the  cathedral  church  in 
Bern,  to  take  one  example,  the  head  of  St.  Vincentius,  ihe 
patron,  was  adorned  with  a  great  (juantity  of  gold,  and  wth 
one  jewel  said  to  be  priceless ;  the  treasury  contained 
70  gold  and  50  silver  cups,  2  silver  coffers,  and  450  costly 


PREACHING  1 1  7 

sacramental  robes  decked  with  jewels  of  great  value.  The 
luxury,  the  artistic  fancy,  and  the  wealth  which  could 
minister  to  both,  all  three  were  characteristic  of  the  times, 
were  lavished  by  the  Germans  on  their  churches. 

§  2.  Preaching, 

On  the  other  hand,  preaching  took  a  place  it  had  never  ; 
previously  held  in  the  mediaeval  Church.  Some  dis-  \ 
tinguished  Churchmen  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that  it  was  \ 
the  most  important  duty  the  priest  could  perform — more  . 
important  than  saying  Mass.  It  was  recognised  that  when 
the  people  began  to  read  the  Bible  and  religious  books  in 
the  vernacular,  it  became  necessary  for  the  priests  to  be 
able  to  instruct  their  congregations  intelligently  and  sym- 
pathetically in  sermons.  Attempts  were  made  to  provide 
the  preachers  with  material  for  their  sermon-making.  The 
earliest  was  the  Biblia  Pauperum  (the  Bible  for  the 
Paiiperes  Christi,  or  the  preaching  monks),  which  collects 
on  one  page  pictures  of  Bible  histories  fitted  to  explain 
?ach  other,  and  adds  short  comments.  Thus,  on  the  twenty- 
fifth  leaf  there  are  three  pictures — in  the  centre  the  Cruci- 
fixion ;  on  the  left  Abraham  about  to  slay  Isaac,  with  the 
lamb  in  the  foreground  ;  and  on  the  left  the  Brazen  Serpent 
and  the  healing  of  the  Plague.  More  scholarly  preachers 
found  a  valuable  commentary  in  the  PosHlla  of  the  learned 
Franciscan  Nicolas  de  Lyra  (Lira  or  Lire,  a  village  in 
Normandy),  who  was  the  first  real  exegetical  scholar,  and 
to  whom  Luther  was  in  later  days  greatly  indebted.^ 

Manuals  of  Pastoral  Theology  were  also  written  and 
published  for  the  benefit  of  the  parish  priests, — the  most 
famous,  under  the  quaint  title,  Dormi  Secure  (sleep  in  safety). 
It  describes  the  more  important  portions  of  the  service,  and 
what  makes  a  good  sermon ;  it  gives  the  Lessons  for  the 
Sunday  services,  the  chief  articles  of  the  Christian  faith, 
and  adds  directions  for  pastoral  work  and  the  cure  of  souls. 

^  No  fewer  than  six  editions  of  bis  Postilla  were  published  between  1471 
and  1508. 


118  POPULAR    RELIGIOUS    LIFE 

It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  describe  briefly  the  charactei 
of  the  preaching.  Some  of  it  was  very  edifying  and  de- 
servedly popular.  The  sermons  of  John  Herolt  were 
printed,  and  attained  a  very  wide  circulation.  No  fewer 
than  forty-one  editions  appeared.  Much  of  the  preaching 
was  the  exposition  of  themes  taken  from  the  Scholastic 
Theology  treated  in  the  most  technical  way.  Many  of  the 
preachers  seem  to  have  profaned  their  office  in  the  search 
after  popularity,  and  mingled  very  questionable  stories  and 
coarse  jokes  with  their  exhortations.  The  best  known  of 
the  preachers  who  flourished  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 
century  was  John  Geiler  of  Keysersberg  (in  Elsass  near 
Colmar),  the  friend  of  Sebastian  Brand,  and  a  member  of 
the  Humanist  circle  of  Strassburg.  The  position  he  filled 
illustrates  the  eagerness  of  men  of  the  time  to  encourage 
preaching.  A  burgher  of  Strassburg,  Peter  Schott,  left  a 
sum  of  money  to  endow  a  preacher,  who  was  to  be  a  doctor 
of  theology,  one  who  had  not  taken  monk's  vows,  and  who 
was  to  preach  to  the  people  in  the  vernacular ;  a  special 
pulpit  was  erected  in  the  Strassburg  Minster  for  the  preacher 
provided  by  this  foundation,  who  was  John  Geiler.  His 
sermons  are  full  of  exhortations  to  piety  and  correct  living. 
He  lashed  the  vices  and  superstitions  of  his  time.  He 
denounced  relic  worship,  pilgrimages,  buying  indulgences, 
and  the  corruptions  in  the  monasteries  and  convents.  He 
spoke  against  the  luxurious  living  of  Popes  and  prelates, 
and  their  trafficking  in  the  sale  of  benefices.  He  made 
csarcastic  references  to  the  papal  decretals  and  to  the 
quibblings  of  Scholastic  Theology.  He  paints  the  luxuries 
and  vices  he  denounced  so  very  clearly,  that  his  writings 
are  a  valuable  mine  for  the  historian  of  popular  morals. 
He  was  a  stern  preacher  of  morals,  but  his  sermons  con- 
tain very  little  of  the  gospel  message.  As  we  read 
them  we  can  understand  Luther's  complaint,  that  while 
he  had  listened  to  many  a  sermon  on  the  sins  of  the  age, 
and  to  many  a  discourse  expounding  scholastic  themes,  he 
had  never  heard  one  which  declared  the  love  of  God  to 
man  in  the  mission  and  work  of  Jesus  Christ. 


CHURCH   FESTIVALS  119 

§  3.  Church  Festivali, 

The  Church  itself,  recognising  the  fondness  of  the ' 
people  for  all  kinds  of  scenic  display,  delighted  to  gratif}  ; 
the  prevailing  taste  by  magnificent  processions,  by  gorgeous . 
church  ceremonial,  by  Passion  and  Miracle  Plays.  Such, 
scenes  are  continually  described  in  contemporary  chronicles. 
The  processions  were  arranged  for  Corpus  Christi  Day, 
for  Christmas,  for  Harvest  Thanksgivings,  when  the  civic 
fathers  requested  the  clergy  to  pray  for  rain,  or  when 
a  great  papal  official  visited  the  town.  We  hear  of  one 
at  Erfurt  which  began  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
and,  with  its  visits  to  the  stations  of  the  Cross  and  the 
services  at  each,  did  not  end  till  noon.  The  school  chil- 
dren of  the  town,  numbering  948,  headed  the  procession, 
then  came  312  priests,  then  the  whole  University, — in 
all,  2141  persons, — and  the  monks  belonging  to  the  five 
monasteries  followed.  The  Holy  Sacrament  carried  by  the 
chief  ecclesiastics,  and  preceded  by  a  large  number  of 
gigantic  candles,  occupied  the  middle  of  the  procession. 
The  town  council  followed,  then  all  the  townsmen,  then 
the  women  and  maidens.  The  troop  of  maidens  was 
2316  strong.  They  had  garlands  on  their  heads,  and  their 
hair  flowed  down  over  their  shoulders ;  they  carried  lighted 
candles  in  their  hands,  and  they  marched  modestly  looking 
to  the  ground.  Two  beautiful  girls  walked  at  their  head 
with  banners,  followed  by  four  with  lanterns.  In  the 
centre  was  the  fairest,  clad  in  black  and  barefoot,  carrying 
a  large  and  splendid  cross,  and  by  her  side  one  of  the  town 
councillors  chosen  for  his  good  looks.  Everything  was 
arranged  with  a  view  to  artistic  effect.* 

The  Passion  and  Miracle  Plays  *  were  of  great  use  in 
instructing  the  people  in  the  contents  of  Scripture,  being 
almost  always  composed  of  biblical  scenes  and  histories. 

*  T.  Bezold,  OescMchte  der  deutschen  Reformation,  p.  91  f. 

*  Heinzel,  Beschreihung  des  geistlichen  Schauspiels  im  deutschen  Mitiel' 
alter  (Hamburg  and  Leipzig,  1898) ;  F.  J.  Moue,  Schauspiele  des  Mittel- 
alters,  2  yoIb.  (Karlsruhe,  1846). 


120  POPULAR    RELIGIOUS   LIFE 

They  were  often  very  elaborate ;  sometimes  more  than  one 
hundred  actors  were  needed  to  fill  the  parts ;  and  the  plays 
were  frequently  so  lengthy  that  they  lasted  for  two  or  three 
days.  The  ecclesiastical  managers  felt  that  the  continuous 
presentation  of  grave  and  lofty  scenes  and  sentiments  might 
weary  their  audiences,  and  they  mixed  them  with  lighter 
ones,  which  frequently  degenerated  into  buffoonery  and 
worse.  The  sacred  and  severe  pathos  of  the  Passion  was 
interlarded  with  coarse  jokes  about  the  devil ;  and  the  most 
solemn  conceptions  were  profaned.  These  Mysteries  were 
generally  performed  in  the  great  churches,  and  the  build- 
ings dedicated  to  sacred  things  witnessed  scenes  of  the 
coarsest  humour,  to  the  detriment  of  all  religious  feeling. 
The  more  serious  Churchmen  felt  the  profanation,  and  tried 
to  prohibit  the  performance  of  plays  interlarded  with  rude 
and  indecent  scenes  within  the  churches  and  churchyards. 
Their  interference  came  too  late ;  the  rough  popular  taste 
demanded  what  it  had  been  accustomed  to ;  sacred  histories 
and  customs  coming  down  from  a  primitive  heathenism 
were  mixed  together,  and  the  people  lost  the  sense  of 
sacredness  which  ought  to  attach  itself  to  the  former.  The 
Feast  of  the  Ass,  to  mention  one,  was  supposed  to  com- 
memorate the  Flight  to  Egypt.  A  beautiful  girl,  holding  a 
child  in  her  lap,  was  seated  on  an  ass  decked  with  splendid 
trappings  of  gold  cloth,  and  was  led  in  procession  by  the 
clergy  through  the  principal  streets  of  the  town  to  the  parish 
church.  The  girl  on  her  ass  was  conducted  into  the  church 
and  placed  near  the  high  altar,  and  the  Mass  and  other 
services  were  each  concluded  by  the  whole  congregation 
braying.  There  is  indeed  an  old  MS.  extant  with  a  rubric 
which  orders  the  priest  to  bray  thrice  on  elevating  the 
Host.^  At  other  seasons  of  popular  licence,  all  the  parts 
of  the  church  service,  even  the  most  solemn,  were  parodied 
by  the  profane  youth  of  the  towns.' 

*  Hampsen,  Medii  jEvi  Kalendarium  (London,  1841),  i.  140  f. 

^  Tilliot,  Mimoires  pour  servir  a  Vhistoire  de  la  file  des  fous  (IjftU* 
•anne,  1761) ;  cf.  Floegel's  Oeschichte  des  Gr oiesk- Komi ichen  {Bid  ed.,  Leipzig 
1886),  pp.  199-242. 


FAMILY    RELIGION  121 

All  this,  however,  tells  us  little  about  the  intimate 
religious  life  and  feelings  of  the  people,  which  is  the 
important  matter  for  the  study  of  the  roots  of  the  great 
ecclesiastical  revolt. 

When  the  evidence  collected  from  the  sources  is  sifted, 
it  will  be  found  that  the  religious  life  of  the  people  at 
the  close  of  the  fifteenth  and  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
centuries  is  full  of  discordant  elements,  and  makes  what 
must  appear  to  us  a  very  incongruous  mosaic.  If  classifica- 
tion be  permissible,  which  it  scarcely  is  (for  religious  types 
always  refuse  to  be  kept  distinct,  and  always  tend  to  run 
into  each  other),  one  would  be  disposed  to  speak  of  the 
simple  homely  piety  of  the  family  circle — the  religion 
taught  at  the  mother's  knee,  the  Kinderlehre,  as  Luther 
called  it ;  of  a  certain  flamboyant  religion  which  inspired 
the  crowds  ;  of  a  calm  anti-clerical  religion  which  grew  and 
spread  silently  throughout  Germany ;  of  the  piety  of  the 
praying-circles,  the  descendants  of  the  fourteenth  century 
Mystics. 

§  4.  The  Family  Religious  Life, 

The  biographies  of  some  of  the  leaders  of  the  Eeforma- 
tion,  when  they  relate  the  childish  reminiscences  of  the 
writers,  bear  unconscious  witness  to  the  kind  of  religion 
which  was  taught  to  the  children  in  pious  burgher  and 
peasant  families.  We  know  that  Luther  learned  the  Creed, 
the  Ten  Commandments,  and  the  Lord's  Prayer.  He  knew 
such  simple  evangelical  hymns  as  "  Ein  kindelein  so  lobe- 
lich,"  ^  "  Nun  bitten  wir  den  heiligen  Geist,"  and  "  Crist  ist 
erstanden."  Children  were  rocked  to  sleep  while  the  mothers 
sang: 

"Ach  lieber  Heere  Jhesu  Christ 
Sid  Du  ein  Kind  gewesen  bist, 
So  gib  ouch  disem  Kindelin 
Din  Gnod  und  ouch  den  Segen  den. 
Ach  Jhesu,  Heere  min, 
Behilt  diz  Kindelin. 

*  The  old  Scottish  version  is,  "To  us  is  borne  a  barne  of  bliss,"  Qvdt 
%nd  Godlie  Ballates  (Scot.  Text  Society,  Edinburgh,  1897),  pp.  51,  250. 


122  POPULAR    RELIGIOUS    LIFE 

Nun  sloff,  nnn  sloff,  min  Kindelin, 
Jhesus  der  sol  din  biilli  sin, 
Der  well,  daz  dir  getroiinie  wol 
Und  werdest  aller  Tugent  voL 

Ach  Jhesup,  Heere  min, 

Behiit  diz  Kindelin."  i 

These  songs  or  hymns,  common  before  the  Reformation 
were  sung  as  frequently  after  the  break  with  Rome.  The 
continuity  in  the  private  devotional  life  before  and  after 
the  advent  of  the  Reformation  is  a  thing  to  be  noted.  Few 
hymns  were  more  popular  during  the  last  decade  of  the 
fifteenth  century  than  the  "  In  dulci  Jubilo  "  in  which  Latin 
and  German  mingled.     The  first  and  last  verses  were : 

"  In  dulci  jubilo, 
Nun  singet  und  seid  froh ! 
Unsers  Herzens  Wonne 
Leit  in  prjesepio, 
Und  leuchtet  als  die  Sonne 
Matris  in  gremio. 
Alpha  es  et  0, 
Alpha  es  et  0  I 

Ubi  sunt  gaudia? 
Nirgends  mehr  denn  da, 
Da  die  Engel  singen 
Nova  cantica, 
Und  die  Schellen  klingen 
In  regis  curia. 
Eya,  war'n  wir  da, 
Eya,  war'n  wir  da !  '* 

^  This  may  be  translated  : 

**  Oh  Jesus,  Master,  meek  and  mild, 
Since  Thou  wast  once  a  little  child, 
Wilt  Thou  not  give  this  baby  mine 
Thy  Grace  and  every  blessing  thine! 
Oh  Jesu.s,  Master  inild, 
Protect  my  little  child. 

Now  sleep,  now  sleep,  my  little  child. 
He  loves  thee,  Jesus,  meek  and  mild: 
He'll  never  leave  thee  nor  forsake, 
He'll  make  thee  'wise  and  good  and  great. 

Oh  Jesus,  Master  mild, 

Protect  my  little  child." 


FAMILY    RELIGION  123 

This  hymn  continued  to  enjoy  a  wonderful  popularity 
in  the  German  Protestant  churches  and  families  until  quite 
recently,  and  during  the  times  of  the  Keformation  it  spread 
far  beyond  Germany.^  In  the  fifteenth-century  version  it 
contained  one  verse  in  praise  of  the  Virgin: 

"Mater  et  fiha 
Du  bist,  Jungfraw  Maria. 
Wir  weren  all  verloren 
Per  nostra  crimina, 
So  hat  ay  ims  erworben 
Celorum  gaudia. 
Eya,  war'n  wir  da, 
Eya,  war'n  wir  dal" 

*  Th6  old  Scotch  version  was : 

"  In  dulci  jubilo, 
Now  let  us  sing  with  mirth  and  jo  I 
Our  hartis  consolation 
Lies  in  praesepio ; 
And  schjnis  as  the  Sonnt 
Matris  in  gremio^ 
Alpha  es  et  0, 
Alpha  es  et  01 

0  Jesu  parvule, 

1  thirst  sair  after  Thee ; 
Comfort  my  hart  and  mind, 
O  Puer  optime ! 

God  of  all  grace  so  kind, 
Et  Princeps  Gloriae, 
Trahe  me  post  Te, 
Trahe  me  post  Tel 

Ubi  sunt  gaudia 

In  any  place  but  there, 

Where  that  the  angels  sing 

Kova  cantica, 

But  and  the  bellis  ring 

In  Regis  curia ! 

God  gif  I  were  there, 

God  gif  I  were  there  I  ** 
~-{Oud«  and  Oodlie  Ballates  (Scot.  Text  Society,  Edinburgh,  1897),  pp.  68, 
250.) 

There  ia  a  variety  of  English  versions:  "Let  Jubil  trumpets  blow, 
and  hearts  in  rapture  flow"  ;  "In  dulci  jubilo,  to  the  House  of  God  we'll 
go";  "In  dulci  jubilo,  sing  and  shout  all  below."  Cf.  Julian,  IHcticmary 
of  Hymnologyt  /  '^Qi. 


124  POPULAR    RELIGIOUS   LIFE 

which  was  either  omitted  in  the  post-Eeformation  versions, 
or  there  was  substituted  : 

••0  Patris  charitas, 
O  Natl  lenitas  I 
Wir  weren  all  verloren 
Per  nostra  crimina, 
So  hat  Er  ims  erworben 
Coelorum  gaiidia. 
Eya,  war'n  wir  da, 
Eya,  war'n  wir  da."* 

Nor  was  direct  simple  evangelical  instruction  lacking. 
Friedrich  Mecum  (known  better  by  his  Latinised  name  of 
Myconius),  who  was  born  in  1491,  relates  how  his  father, 
a  substantial  burgher  belonging  to  Lichtenfels  in  Upper 
Franconia,  instructed  him  in  religion  while  he  was  a  child. 
"  My  dear  father,"  he  says,  "  had  taught  me  in  my  child- 
hood the  Ten  Commandments,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the 
Creed,  and  constrained  me  to  pray  always.  For,  said  he, 
*  Everything  comes  to  us  from  God  alone,  and  that  gratis, 
free  of  cost,  and  He  will  lead  us  and  rule  us,  if  we 
only  diligently  pray  to  Him.' "  We  can  trace  this  simple 
evangelical  family  religion  away  back  through  the  Middle 
Ages.  In  the  wonderfully  interesting  Chronicle  of  Brother 
Salimbene  of  the  Franciscan  Convent  of  Parma,  which 
comes  from  the  thirteenth  century,  we  are  told  how  many 
of  the  better-disposed  burghers  of  the  town  came  to  the 
convent  frequently  to  enjoy  the  rehgious  conversation  of 
Brother  Hugh.  On  one  occasion  the  conversation  turned 
upon  the  mystical  theology  of  Abbot  Giaocchino  di  Fiore. 
The  burghers  professed  to  be  greatly  edified,  but  said  that 
they  hoped  that  on  the  next  evening  Brother  Hugh  would 
confine  himself  to  telling  them  the  simple  words  of  Jesus. 

The  central  thought  in  all  evangelical  religion  is  that 
the  believer  does  not  owe  his  position  before  God,  and 
his  assurance  of  salvation,  to  the  good  deeds  which  he 
really  can  do,  but  to  the  grace  of  God  manifested  in  the 
missii^n  and  the  work  of  Christ ;  and  the  more  we  turn 

*  Wackernagel,  Das  deutsche  KirchenlUd,  etc.,  iL  483  C 


FAMILY    RELIGION  125 

from  the  thought  of  what  we  can  do  to  the  thought  of 
what  God  has  done  for  us,  the  stronger  will  be  the  con- 
viction that  simple  trust  in  God  is  that  by  which  the 
pardoning  grace  of  God  is  appropriated.  This  double  con- 
ception— God's  grace  coming  down  upon  us  from  above, 
and  the  believer's  trust  rising  from  beneath  to  meet  and 
appropriate  it — was  never  absent  from  the  simplest  religion 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  It  did  not  find  articulate  expression  t 
in  mediaeval  theology,  for,  owing  to  its  enforced  connection  y^/j 
with  Aristotelian  philosophy,  that  theology  was  largely 
artificial ;  but  the  thought  itself  had  a  continuous  and  con- 
stant existence  in  the  public  consciousness  of  Christian  men 
and  women,  and  appeared  in  sermons,  prayers,  and  hymns, 
and  in  the  other  ways  in  which  the  devotional  life  mani- 
fested itself.  It  is  found  in  the  sermons  of  the  greatest 
of  mediaeval  preachers,  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  and  in  the 
teaching  of  the  most  persuasive  of  religious  guides,  Francis 
of  Assisi.  The  one,  Bernard,  in  spite  of  his  theological 
training,  was  able  to  rise  above  the  thought  of  human 
merit  recommending  the  sinner  to  God ;  and  the  other, 
Francis,  who  had  no  theological  training  at  all,  insisted  that 
he  was  fitted  to  lead  a  life  of  imitation  simply  because  he 
had  no  personal  merits  whatsoever,  and  owed  every thiug 
to  the  marvellous  mercy  and  grace  of  God  given  freely  to 
him  in  the  work  of  Christ.  The  thought  that  all  the  good 
we  can  do  comes  from  the  wisdom  and  mercy  of  God,  and 
that  without  these  gifts  of  grace  we  are  sinful  and  worth- 
less— the  feeling  that  all  pardon  and  all  holy  living  are 
free  gifts  of  God's  grace,  was  the  central  thought  round 
which  in  mediaeval,  as  in  all  times,  the  faith  of  simple  and 
pious  people  twined  itseK  It  found  expression  in  the 
simpler  mediaeval  hymns,  Latin  and  German.  The  utter 
need  for  sin-pardoning  grace  is  expressed  and  taught  in  the 
prayer  of  the  Canon  of  the  Mass.  It  found  its  way,  in 
spite  of  the  theology,  even  into  the  official  agenda  of  the 
Church,  where  the  dying  are  told  that  they  must  repose 
their  confidence  upon  Christ  and  His  Passion  as  the  sole 
ground  of  confidence  in  their  salvation.     If  we  take  the 


126  POPULAR    RELIGIOUS    LIFE 

fourth  book  of  Thomas  k  Kempis'  Imitatio  Christi,  it  is 
impossible  to  avoid  seeing  that  his  ideas  about  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  Supper  (in  spite  of  the  mistakes  in  them)  kept 
alive  in  his  mind  the  thought  of  a  free  grace  of  God,  and 
that  he  had  a  clear  conception  that  God's  grace  was  freely 
given,  and  not  merited  by  what  man  can  do.  For  the 
main  thought  with  pious  mediaeval  Christians,  however  it 
might  be  overlaid  with  superstitious  conceptions,  was  that 
they  received  in  the  sacrament  a  gift  of  overwhelming 
greatness.  Many  a  modern  Christian  seems  to  think  that 
the  main  idea  is  that  in  this  sacrament  one  does  something 
— ^makes  a  profession  of  Christianity.  The  old  view  went 
a  long  way  towards  keeping  people  right  in  spite  of  errors, 
while  the  modern  view  does  a  great  deal  towards  leading 
them  wrong  in  spite  of  truth. 

All  these  things  combine  to  show  us  how  there  was  a 
\\  simple  evangelical  faith  among  pious  mediaeval  Christians, 
and  that  their  lives  were  fed  upon  the  same  divine  truths 
which  lie  at  the  basis  of  Eeformation  theology.  The 
'truths  were  all  there,  as  poetic  thoughts,  as  earnest  suppli- 
cation and  confession,  in  fervent  preaching  or  in  fireside 
teaching.  When  mediaeval  Christians  knelt  in  prayer,  stood 
to  smg  their  Eedeemer's  praises,  spoke  as  a  dying  man 
to  dymg  men,  or  as  a  mother  to  the  children  about  her 
knees,  the  words  and  thoughts  that  came  were  what  Luther 
and  Zwingli  and  Calvin  wove  into  Eeformation  creeds, 
and  expanded  into  that  experimental  theology  which  was 
characteristic  of  the  Eeformation. 

When  the  printing-press  began  in  the  last  decades  of 
the  fifteenth  century  to  provide  little  books  to  aid  private 
and  family  devotion,  it  is  not  surprising,  after  what  has 
been  said,  to  find  how  full  many  of  them  were  of  simple 
evangelical  piety.  Some  contained  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the 
Ten  Commandments,  the  Apostles'  Creed,  and  occasionally 
a  translation  or  paraphrase  of  some  of  the  Psalms,  notably 
the  51st  Psalm.  Popular  religious  instructions  and  cate- 
chisms for  family  use  were  printed.  The  Catechism  of 
Dietrich  Koelde  (written  in  1470)  says:  "Man  must  place 


SUPERSTITIOUS   RELIGION  127 

his  faith  and  hope  and  love  on  God  alone,  and  not  in  any 
creature ;  he  must  trust  in  nothing  but  in  the  work  of 
Jesus  Christ."  The  Seelenwurzgartlein,  a  widely  used  book 
of  devotion,  instructs  the  penitent :  "  Thou  must  place  all 
thy  hope  and  trust  on  nothing  else  than  on  the  work  and 
death  of  Jesus  Christ."  The  Geistliche  Streit  of  Ulrich 
Krafft  (1503)  teaches  the  dying  man  to  place  all  his  trust 
on  the  "  mercy  and  goodness  of  God,  and  not  on  his  own 
good  works."  Quotations  might  be  multiplied,  all  proving 
the  existence  of  a  simple  evangelical  piety,  and  showing 
that  the  home  experience  of  Friedrich  Mecum  (Myconius) 
was  shared  in  by  thousands,  and  that  there  was  a  simple 
evangelical  family  religion  in  numberless  German  homes  in 
the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

§  5.  ^  superstitious  Beligion  "based  on  Fear. 

I  When  sensitive,  religiously  disposed  boys  left  pious 
homes,  they  could  not  fail  to  come  in  contact  with  a  very 
different  kind  of  religion.  Many  did  not  need  to  quit  the 
family  circle  in  order  to  meet  it.  Near  Mansfeld,  Luther's 
home,  were  noted  pilgrimage  places.  Pilgrims,  singly  oi 
in  great  bands,  passed  to  make  their  devotions  before  the 
wooden  cross  at  Kyffhauser,  which  was  supposed  to  effect 
miraculous  cures.  The  Bruno  Quertfort  Chapel  and  the 
old  chapel  at  Welfesholz  were  pilgrimage  places.  Sick 
people  were  carried  to  spots  near  the  cloister  church  at 
Wimmelberg,  where  they  could  best  hear  the  sound  of  the 
cloister  bells,  which  were  believed  to  have  a  healing  virtue. 
The  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  century  witnessed  a 
great  and  widespreading  religious  revival,  which  prolonged 
itself  into  the  earlier  decades  of  the  sixteenth,  though  the 
year  1475  may  perhaps  be  taken  as  its  high- water  mark. 
Its  most  characteristic  feature  was  the  impulse  to  make 
pilgrimages  to  favoured  shrines ;  and  these  pilgrimages 
were  always  considered  to  be  something  in, the  nature  of 
satisfactions  made  to  God  for  sins.  With  some  of  the 
earlier  phenomena  we  have  nothing  here  to  do. 


128  POPULAR   RELIGIOUS   LIFE 

The  impetus  to  pilgrimages  given  after  the  great 
Schism  by  the  celebration  in  1456  of  the  first  Jubilee 
"  after  healing  the  wounds  of  the^  Church  " ;  the  relatiob 
of  these  pilgrimages  to  the  doctrines  of  Indulgences  which, 
foznmlated  by  the  great  Schoolmen  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, had  changed  the  whole  penitential  system  of  the 
mediaeval  Church,  must  be  passed  over;  the  curious  socialist, 
anti-clerical,  and  yet  deeply  superstitious  movement  led  by 
the  cowherd  and  village  piper,  Hans  Bohm,  has  been 
described.  But  one  movement  is  so  characteristic  of  the 
times,  that  it  must  be  noticed.  In  the  years  1455—1459 
all  the  chroniclers  describe  great  gatherings  of  children  from 
every  part  of  Germany,  from  town  and  village,  who,  with 
crosses  and  banners,  went  on  pilgrimage  to  St.  Michael  in 
Normandy.  The  chronicler  of  Liibeck  compares  the  spread 
of  the  movement  to  the  advance  of  the  plague,  and  wonders 
whether  the  prompting  arose  from  the  inspiration  of  God 
or  from  the  instigation  of  the  devil.  When  a  band  of 
these  child-pilgrims  reached  a  town,  carrying  aloft  crosses 
and  banners  blazoned  with  a  rude  image  of  St.  Michael, 
singing  their  special  pilgrim  song,^  the  town's  children 
were  impelled  to  join  them.  How  this  strange  epidemic 
arose,  and  what  put  an  end  to  it,  seems  altogether  doubt- 
ful ;  but  the  chronicles  of  almost  every  important  town  in 
Germany  attest  the  facts,  and  the  contemporary  records 
of  North  France  describe  the  bands  of  youthful  pilgrims 
who  traversed  the  country  to  go  to  St.  Michael's  Mount. 

During  these  last  decades  of  the  fifteenth  century,  a 
great   fear   seems   to   have   brooded  over  Central  Europa 

^  The  song  began : 

"  Wollent  ir  geren  horen 
Von  sant  Michel's  wunn  ; 
In  Gargau  ist  er  gsessen 
Drei  mil  im  meresgrund. 

*  0  heilgev  man,  sant  Micliel, 
Wie  hastu  dass  gesundt, 
Dass  du  so  tief  hast  buwen 
Wol  in  des  meres  grund  ? '  " 
— ^Wackeriiagel,  Das  deutsche  Kirchciilicd,  etc.  ii.  1003.) 


PILGRIMAGES  129 

The  countries  were  scourged  by  incessant  visits  of  thn 
plague ;  new  diseases,  never  before  heard  of,  came  to  swell 
the  terror  of  the  people.  The  alarm  of  a  Turkish  invasion 
was  always  before  their  eyes.  Bells  tolled  at  midday  in 
hundreds  of  German  parishes,  calling  the  parishioners 
together  for  prayer  against  the  incoming  of  the  Turks,  and 
served  to  keep  the  dread  always  present  to  their  minds. 
Mothers  threatened  their  disobedient  children  by  calling 
on  the  Turk  to  come  and  take  them.  It  was  fear  that  lay 
at  the  basis  of  this  crude  revival  of  religion  which  marks 
the  closing  decades  of  the  fifteenth  century.  It  gave  rise 
to  an  urgent  restlessness.  Prophecies  of  evil  were  easily 
believed  in.  Astrologers  assumed  a  place  and  wielded 
a  power  which  was  as  new  as  it  was  strange.  The 
credulous  people  welcomed  all  kinds  of  revelations  and 
proclamations  of  miraculous  signs.  At  Wilsnack,  a  village 
in  one  of  the  divisions  of  Brandenburg  (Priegnitz),  it  had 
been  alleged  since  1383  that  a  consecrated  wafer  secreted 
the  Blood  of  Christ.  Suddenly,  in  1475,  people  were 
seized  with  a  desire  to  make  a  pilgrimage  to  this  shrine. 
Swarms  of  child-pilgrims  again  filled  the  roads — boys  and 
girls,  from  eight  to  eighteen  years  of  age,  bareheaded,  clad 
only  in  their  shirts,  shouting,  "  0  Lord,  have  mercy  upon 
us  " — going  to  Wilsnack.  Sometimes  schoolmasters  headed 
a  crowd  of  pilgrims ;  mothers  deserted  their  younger 
children ;  country  lads  and  maids  left  their  work  in  the 
fields  to  join  the  processions.  These  pilgrims  came  mostly 
from  Central  Germany  (1100  from  Eisleben  alone),  but 
the  contagion  spread  to  Austria  and  Hungary,  and  great 
bands  of  youthful  pilgrims  appeared  from  these  countries. 
They  travelled  without  provisions,  and  depended  on  the 
charity  of  the  peasants  for  food.  Large  numbers  of  these 
child-pilgrims  did  not  know  why  they  had  joined  the 
throng ;  they  had  never  heard  of  the  Bleeding  Host  towards 
which  they  w^ere  journeying ;  when  asked  why  they  had  set 
out  they  could  only  answer  that  they  could  not  help  it, 
that  tliey  saw  the  red  cross  at  the  head  of  their  little 
band,  and  had  to  follow  it.  Many  of  them  could  nofc 
9* 


130  POPULAR   RELIGIOUS   LIFE 

Speak ;  all  went  weeping  and  groaning,  shivering  as  11 
they  had  a  fit  of  ague.  An  unnatural  strength  supported 
them.  Little  boys  and  girls,  some  of  them  not  eight  years 
old,  from  a  small  village  near  Bamberg,  were  said  to  have 
marched,  on  their  first  setting  forth,  all  day  and  the  first 
night  the  incredible  distance  of  not  less  than  eighty  miles ! 
Some  towns  tried  to  put  a  stop  to  these  pilgrimages.  Erfurt 
shut  its  gates  against  the  youthful  companies.  The  pil- 
grimages ended  as  suddenly  as  they  had  begun.^ 

Succeeding  years  witnessed  similar  astonishing  pilgrim- 
ages— in  1489,  to  the  "  black  Mother  of  God  "  in  Altotting ; 
in  1492,  to  the  "Holy  Blood"  at  Sternberg;  in  the  same 
year,  to  the  "  pitiful  Bone  "  at  Dornach ;  in  1499,  to  the 
picture  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  at  Grimmenthal;  in  1^00,  to 
the  head  of  St.  Anna  at  Diiren ;  and  in  1519,  to  the 
"  Beautiful  Mary  "  at  Eegensburg. 

Apart  altogether  from  these  sporadic  movements,  the 
last  decades  of  the  fifteenth  century  were  pre-eminently  a 
time  of  pilgrimages.  German  princes  and  wealthy  mer- 
chants made  pilgrimages  to  the  Holy  Land,  visited  the 
sacred  places  there,  and  returned  with  numerous  relics, 
which  they  stored  in  favourite  churches.  Frederick  the 
Wise,  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  to  be  known  afterwards  as  the 
protector  of  Luther,  made  such  a  pilgrimage,  and  placed  the 
relics  he  had  acquired  in  the  Castle  Church  (the  Church  of 
All  Saints)  in  Wittenberg.  He  became  an  assiduous  col- 
lector of  relics,  and  had  commissioners  on  the  Ehine,  in  the 
Netherlands,  and  at  Venice,  with  orders  to  procure  him 
any  sacred  novelties  they  met  with  for  sale.^  He  procured 
from  the  Pope  an  Indulgence  for  all  who  visited  the  col- 
lection and  took  part  in  the  services  of  the  church  on  All 
Saints'  Day ;  for  it  is  one  of  the  ironies  of  history  that  the 
church  on  whose  door  Luther  nailed  his  theses  against 
Indulgences  was  one  of  the  sacred  edifices  on  which  an 
Indulgence  had  been  bestowed,  and  that  the  day  selected 

^  Konrad    Stolle,    Thiinngische    Chronik,    pp.   128-131    {Bibli  fhek  des 
literarisdoen  Vereins  in  Stuttgart,  xxxiii.). 

^  Kolde.  Friedrich  der  TVeise  und  die  Anfdnge  der  Reformation^  p.  14. 


PILGRIMAGES  131 

by  Luther  was  the  yearly  anniversary,  which  drew  crowds 
to  benefit  by  it.^ 

A  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land  was  too  costly  and 
dangerous  to  be  indulged  in  by  many.  The  richer 
Germans  made  pilgrimages  to  Eome,  and  the  great  pilgrim- 
age place  for  the  middle-class  or  poorer  Germans  was 
Compostella  in  Spain.  Einsiedelu,  in  Switzerland,  also 
attracted  yearly  swarms  of  pilgrims. 

Guide-books  were  written  for  the  benefit  of  these  pious 
travellers,  and  two  of  them,  the  most  popular,  have  recently 
been  reprinted.  They  are  the  Mirdbilia  Romce  for  Roman 
pilgrims,  and  the  Walfart  und  Strasse  zu  Sant  Jacob  for 
travellers  to  Compostella.  These  little  books  had  a  wonder- 
ful popularity.  The  Mirabilia  Romce  went  through  nine- 
teen Latin  and  at  least  twelve  German  editions  before  the 
year  1500;  it  was  also  translated  into  Italian  and  Dutch. 
It  describes  the  various  shrines  at  Rome  where  pilgrims 
may  win  special  gifts  of  grace  by  visiting  and  worshipping 
at  them.  Who  goes  to  the  Lateran  Church  and  worships 
there  has  "  forgiveness  of  all  sins,  both  guilt  and  penalty." 
There  is  "  a  lovely  little  chapel "  (probably  what  is  now 
called  the  Lateran  Baptistry)  near  the  Lateran,  where  the 
same  privileges  may  be  won.  The  pilgrim  who  goes  with 
good  intention  to  the  High  Altar  of  St.  Peter's  Church, 
"  even  if  he  has  murdered  his  father  or  his  mother,"  is  freed 
from  all  sin,  "  guilt  as  well  as  penalty,"  provided  he  repents. 
The  virtues  of  St.  Croce  seem  to  have  been  rated  even 
higher.  If  a  man  leaves  his  house  with  the  intention  of 
going  to  the  shrine,  even  if  he  die  by  the  way,  all  his  sins  ( 
are  forgiven  him ;  and  if  he  visits  the  church  he  wins  a  / 
thousand  years'  relief  from  Purgatory.^ 

Compostella  in  Spain  was  the  people's  pilgrimage  place. 
Before  the  invention  of  printing  we  find  traces  of  manu- 

*  Lucas  Cranach,  Wittenlerger  Heiligcnthumsbueh  vom  Jahre  1509^  m 
Hirth's  Liehhdber-Bibliothek  alter  Illustratoren  in  Facsimilien-Reproduk- 
Hon,  No.  vii.  (Munich,  1896). 

2  Mirabilia  Romce^  ed.  by  G.  Pai  they :  the  quotations  are  from  an  old 
German  translation. 


132  POPULAR   RELIGIOUS   LIFE 

script  guides  to  travellers,  which  were  no  doubt  circulated 
among  intending  pilgrims,  and  afterwards  the  services  of 
the  printing-press  were  early  called  in  to  assist.  In  the 
Spanish  archives  at  Simancas  there  are  two  single  sheets, 
one  of  which  states  the  numerous  Indulgences  for  the 
benefit  of  visitors  at  the  shrine  of  St.  James,  wliile  the 
other  enumerates  the  relics  which  are  to  be  seen  and  visited 
there.  It  mentions  thirty-nine  great  relics — from  tlio 
bones  of  St.  James,  which  lay  under  the  great  altar  of  tlie 
cathedral,  to  those  of  St.  Susanna,  which  were  interred  in  a 
church  outside  the  walls  of  the  town.^  These  leaflets  were 
sold  to  the  pilgrims,  and  were  carried  back  by  them  to 
Germany,  where  they  stimulated  the  zeal  and  devotion  of 
those  who  intended  to  make  the  pilgrimage.  Our  pilgrim's 
guide-book,  the  Walfart  und  Strasse  zu  Sant  Jacoh,^  deals 
almost  exclusively  with  the  road.  The  author  was  a 
certain  Hermann  Klinig  of  Vach,  who  calls  himself  a 
Mergen-hnecht,  or  servant  of  the  Virgin  Mary.  The  well- 
known  pilgrim  song,  "  Of  Saint  James  "  (  Von  Sant  Jacob), 
told  how  those  who  reached  the  end  of  their  journey  got, 
through  the  intercession  of  St.  James,  forgiveness  from  the 
guilt  and  penalty  (yon  Pein  und  Schuldt)  of  all  their  sins ; 
it  tells  the  pilgrims  to  provide  themselves  with  two  pairs 
of  shoes,  a  water-bottle  and  spoon,  a  satchel  and  staff, 
a  broad-brimmed  hat  and  a  cloak,  both  trimmed  with 
leather  in  the  places  likeliest  to  be  frayed,  and  both  needed 
as  a   protection    against   wind    and    rain   and   snow.^     It 

^  Tlie  title  is  Hcb  sunt  reliquice  quce  hdbcntur  in  hac  sanctissima  ecclesia 
Comjtostdlana  in  qua  corpus  Beati  Jacohi  Zchcdei  in  integrum. 

2  No.  i.  of  Drucke  und  Holzschnitte  des  15  und  16  Jahrhunderts  (StraM- 
burg,  1899). 

•  **  Zway  par  schuech  der  darfF  er  wol, 

Ein  schtissel  bei  der  flaschen ; 
Ein  breiten  huet  den  sol  er  han, 
Und  an  mantel  sol  er  nit  gan 
Myt  leder  wol  besezet; 
Es  schnei  oder  regn  oder  wehe  der  wint, 
Dass  in  die  lufft  nicht  nezet ; 
Sagkh  und  stab  ist  auch  dar  bey." 
— ( Wackernagel,  Das  deut^dte  Kirchenlied  von  der  aeltesten  Zeit  his  zu  Anfang 
des  17  Jahrhuiiderts,  ii.  1009.) 


PILGRIMAGES  133 

charges  them  to  take  permits  from  their  parish  priests 
to  dispense  with  confession,  for  they  were  going  to 
foreign  lands  where  they  would  not  find  priests  who  spoke 
German.  It  warns  them  that  they  might  die  far  from 
home  and  find  a  grave  on  the  pilgrimage  route.  Our 
guide-book  omits  all  these  things.  It  is  written  by  a  man 
who  has  made  the  pilgrimage  on  foot ;  who  had  observed 
minutely  all  the  turns  of  the  road,  and  could  warn  fellow- 
pilgrims  of  the  difficulties  of  the  way.  He  gives  the 
itinerary  from  town  to  town ;  where  to  turn  to  the  right 
and  where  to  the  left ;  what  conspicuous  buildings  mark 
the  proper  path ;  where  the  traveller  will  find  people  who 
are  generous  to  poor  pilgrims,  and  where  the  inhabitants 
are  uncharitable  and  food  and  drink  must  be  paid  for ; 
where  hostels  abound,  and  those  parts  of  the  road  on 
which  there  are  few,  and  where  the  pilgrims  must  buy 
their  provisions  beforehand  and  carry  them  in  their 
satchels  ;  where  sick  pilgrims  can  find  hospitals  on  the  way, 
and  what  treatment  they  may  expect  there ;  ^  at  what 
hostels  they  must  change  their  money  into  French  and 
Spanish  coin.  In  brief,  the  booklet  is  a  mediaeval 
"  Baedeker,"    compiled    with    German    accuracy    for    the 

^  The  hospital  at  Romans  is  much  praised  : 

**  Da  selbst  eyn  gutter  spital  ist, 
Dar  inne  gybt  mann  brot  unJ  wyn 
Auch  synt  die  bett  hubsch  und  fyn." 

On  the  other  hand,  although  the  hospital  at  Montpelier  was  good  enough, 
its  superintendent  was  a  sworn  enemy  to  Germans,  and  the  pilgrims  of  that 
nation  suffered  much  at  his  hands.  These  hospitals  occupy  a  good  deal  of 
space  in  the  pilgrimage  song,  and  the  woes  of  the  Germans  are  duly  set 
forth.     If  the  pilgrim  asks  politely  for  more  bread  : 

**  Spitelmeister,  lieber  spitelmeister  meyn. 
Die  brot  sein  vil  zu  kleine  " ; 

or  suggests  that  the  beds  are  not  very  clean  : 

**  Spitelmeister,  lieber  spitelmeister  meyn, 
Die  bet  sein  nit  gar  reine," 

the  snperintendent  and  his  daughter  (der  spitelmeister  het  eyn  tochterlein 
es  mocht  recht  vol  eyn  schelckin  seyn)  declared  that  they  were  not  going  to 
be  troubled  with  "  German  dogs." — Wackemagel,  Das  deutsche  Kirchenlied, 
etc.,  u.  1009-1010. 


134  POPULAR   RELIGIOUS   LIFE 

benefit  of  German  pilgrims  to  the  renowned  shrine  of  St. 
James  of  Compostella.  This  little  book  went  through 
several  editions  between  1495  and  1521,  and  is  of  itself  a 
proof  of  the  popularity  of  this  pilgrimage  place.  In  the 
last  decades  of  the  fifteenth  century  there  arose  a  body  of 
men  and  women  who  might  be  called  professional  pilgrims, 
and  who  were  continually  on  the  road  between  Germany 
and  Spain.  A  pilgrimage  was  one  of  the  earhest  so-called 
"  satisfactions "  which  might  be  done  vicariously,  and  the 
Brethren  of  St.  James  (Jacohs-Brueder)  made  the  pilgrimage 
i-egularly,  either  on  behalf  of  themselves  or  of  others. 

Many  of  these  pilgrims  were  men  and  women  of 
indifferent  character,^  who  had  been  sent  on  a  pilgrimage 
as  an  ecclesiastical  punishment  for  their  sins.  The 
Chronicles  of  the  Zimmer  Family'^  gives  several  cases  of 
criminals,  who  had  committed  murder  or  theft  or  other 
serious  crimes  between  1490  and  1520,  who  were  sent  to 
Santiago  as  a  punishment.  Even  in  the  last  decades  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  when  the  greater  part  of  the  pilgrims 
were  devout  in  their  way,  it  was  known  only  too  well 
that  pilgrimages  were  not  helpful  to  a  moral  life.  Stern 
preachers  of  righteousness  like  Geiler  of  Keysersberg  and 
Berchtold  of  Eegensburg  denounced  pilgrimages,  and  said 
that  they  created  more  sins  than  they  yielded  pardons.^ 
Parish  priests  continually  forbade  their  women  penitents, 
especially  if  they  were  unmarried,  from  going  on  a 
pilgrimage.  But  these  warnings  and  rebukes  were  in 
vain.  The  prevailing  terror  had  possessed  the  people, 
and  they  journeyed  from  shrine  to  shrine  seeking  some 
relief  for  their  stricken  consciences. 

A  marked  characteristic  of  this  revival  which  found 
such  striking  outcome  in  these  pilgrimages  was  the 
thought  that  Jesus  was  to  be  looked  upon  as  the  Judge 
who  was  to  come  to  punish  the  wicked.  His  saving  and 
intercessory  work  was  thrust  into  the  background.  Men 
forgot  that  He  was  the  Saviour  and  the  Intercessor ;  and 

1  Zimmerische  Chronik  (Freiburg  i.  B.  1881-1882),  ii.  314. 
■  Ibid.  iii.  474-475  iv.  201.  '  Predigten,  i.  448. 


THE    VIRGIN    AND   SAINT   ANNA  135 

BS  the  luunan  heart  craves  for  soDicone  to  intercede  for 
it,  another  intercessor  had  to  be  found.  This  gracious 
personality  was  discovered  in  the  Virgin  Mother,  who  was 
to  be  entreated  to  intercede  with  her  Son  on  behalf  of 
^  poor  sinning  human  creatures.  The  last  half  of  the 
fifteenth  century  saw  a  deep-seated  and  widely-spread  crav- 
ing to  cling  to  the  protection  of  the  Virgin  Mother  with 
I  strength  and  intensity  hitherto  unknown  in  mediieval 
religion.  It  witnessed  the  furthest  advance  that  had  yet 
been  made  towards  what  must  be  called  Mariolatry.  This 
devotion  expressed  itself,  as  religious  emotion  continually 
does,  in  hymns ;  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  mediaeval 
hymns  in  praise  of  the  Virgin  were  written  in  the  second 
half  of  the  fifteenth  century — the  period  of  this  strange 
revival  based  upon  fear.  Dread  of  the  Son  as  Judge  gave 
rise  to  the  devotion  to  the  Mother  as  the  intercessor. 
Little  books  for  private  and  family  devotion  were  printed, 
bearing  such  titles  as  the  Pea^^l  of  the  Passion  and  the  Little 
Gospel,  containing,  with  long  comments,  the  words  of  our 
Lord  on  the  cross  to  John  and  to  Mary.  She  became  the 
ideal  woman,  the  ideal  mother,  the  "  Mother  of  God,"  the 
mater  dolorosa,  with  her  heart  pierced  by  the  sword,  the 
sharer  in  the  redemptive  sufferings  of  her  Son,  retaining 
her  sensitive  woman's  heart,  ready  to  listen  to  the  appeals 
of  a  suffering,  sorrowful  humanity.  We  can  see  this 
devotion  to  the  Virgin  Mother  impregnating  the  social 
revolts  from  Hans  Bohm  to  Joss  Fritz.  The  theology  of 
the  schools  followed  in  the  wake  of  the  popular  sentiment, 
and  the  doctrine  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  was  more 
strictly  defined  and  found  its  most  strenuous  supporters 
during  the  later  decades  of  this  fifteenth  century. 

The   thought  of    motherly  intercession  went   further; 

the  Virgin   herself  had   to  be  interceded  with   to  induce 

j  her  to  plead  with  her  Son  for  men  sunk  in  sin,  and  her 

■  mother  (St.  Anna)  became  the  object  of  a  cult  which  may 

almost  be  said  to  be  quite  new.     Hymns  were  written  in 

her  praise.^     Confraternities,  modelled  on  the  confraternities 

*  Wackernagel,  Das  deulsche  Kirchenlied,  etc.,  ii.  554,  1016-1022. 


136  POPULAR    RELIGIOUS    LIFE 

dedicated  to  tlie  Blessed  Virgin,  were  formed  in  order  to 
bring  the  power  of  the  prayers  of  numbers  to  bear  upon 
her.  These  confraternities  spread  all  over  Germany  and 
beyond  it.^  It  is  almost  possible  to  trace  the  widening 
area  of  the  cult  from  the  chronicles  of  the  period.  The 
special  cult  of  the  Virgin  seems  to  have  begun,  at  least 
in  its  extravagant  popular  form,  in  North  France,  and  to 
have  spread  from  France  through  Germany  and  Spain ; 
but  so  far  as  it  can  be  traced,  this  cult  of  St.  Anna,  "  the 
Grandmother,"  had  a  German  origin,  and  the  devotion 
manifested  itself  most  deeply  on  German  soil.  Even  the 
Humanist  poets  sang  her  praises  with  enthusiasm,  and  such 
collectors  of  relics  as  Frederick  of  Saxony  and  the  Cardinal 
Archbishop  of  Mainz  rejoiced  when  they  were  able  to  add 
a  thumb  of  St.  Anna  to  their  store.  Luther  himself  tells 
us  that  "  St.  Anna  was  his  idol " ;  and  Calvin  speaks  of 
his  mother's  devotion  to  the  saint.  Her  name  was  graven 
on  many  a  parish  church  bell,  and  every  pull  at  the  ropes 
and  clang  of  the  bell  was  supposed  to  be  a  prayer  to 
her  to  intercede.  The  Virgin  and  St.  Anna  brought 
in  their  train  other  saints  who  were  also  believed  to  be 
the  true  intercessors.  The  three  bells  of  the  church  in 
which  Luther  was  baptized  bore  the  following  inscriptions 
carved  deeply  in  the  brass : — "  God  help  us ;  Mary  have 
mercy.  1499."  "Help  us  Anna,  also  St.  Peter,  St.  Paul. 
1509."  "Help  us  God,  Mary,  Anna,  St.  Peter,  Paul, 
Arnold,  Stephan,  Simon.  1509."  The  popular  religion 
always  represented  Jesus,  Mecum  (Myconius)  tells  us,  as 
the  stern  Judge  who  would  convict  and  punish  all  those 
who  had  not  secured  righteousness  by  the  intercession  of 
the  saints  or  by  their  own  good  works. 

\  This  revival  of  religion,  crude  as  it  was,  and  based  on 
;fear,  had  a  distinct  effect  for  good  on  a  portion  of  the 
iciergy,  and  led  to  a  great '  reformation  of  morals  among 
those  who  came  under  its  influence.  The  papal  Schism, 
Which  had  lasted  till  1449,  had  for  one  of  its  results  the 

^  Schwaumkell,    Der    CuUus    der    heiUgen     Anoia    am    Ausgange   des 
MiUelalters  (Freiburg,  1893). 


THE   MENDICANT    ORDERS  137 

weakening  of  all  ecclesiastical  discipline,  and  its  con- 
sequences  were  seen  in  the  growing  immorality  which 
pervaded  all  classes  of  the  clergy.  So  far  as  one  can 
judge,  the  revival  of  religion  described  above  had  not 
very  much  effect  on  the  secular  clergy.  Whether  we 
take  the  evidence  from  the  chronicles  of  the  time  or 
from  visitations  of  the  bishops,  the  morals  of  the  parish 
priests  were  extremely  low,  and  the  private  lives  of  the 
higher  clergy  in  Germany  notoriously  corrupt.  The 
occupants  of  episcopal  sees  were  for  the  most  part  the 
younger  brothers  of  the  great  princes,  and  had  been  placed 
in  the  religious  life  for  the  sake  of  the  ecclesiastical 
revenues.  The  author  of  the  Chronicles  of  the  Zimmer 
Family  tells  us  that  at  the  festive  gatherings  which 
accompanied  the  meetings  of  the  Diet,  the  young  nobles, 
lay  and  clerical,  spent  most  of  their  time  at  dice  and 
cards.  As  he  passed  through  the  halls,  picking  his  way 
among  groups  of  young  nobles  lying  on  the  floor  (for 
tables  and  chairs  were  rare  in  these  days),  he  continually 
heard  the  young  count  call  out  to  the  young  bishop, 
"  Play  up,  parson ;  it  is  your  turn."  The  same  writer 
describes  the  retinue  of  a  great  prelate,  who  was  always 
accompanied  to  the  Diet  by  a  concubine  dressed  in  man's 
clothes.  Nor  were  the  older  Orders  of  monks,  the  Bene- 
dictines and  their  offshoots,  greatly  influenced  by  the 
revival.  It  was  different,  however,  with  those  Orders  of 
monks  who  came  into  close  contact  with  the  people,  and 
caught  from  them  the  new  fervour.  The  Dominicans,  the 
great  preaching  Order,  were  permeated  by  reform.  The 
Franciscans,  who  had  degenerated  sadly  from  their  earlier 
lives  of  self-denial,  partook  of  a  new  life.  Convent  after 
convent  reformed  itself,  and  the  inmates  began  to  lead 
again  the  lives  their  founder  had  contemplated.  The  fire 
of  the  revival,  however,  burnt  brightest  among  the 
Augustinian  Eremites,  the  Order  which  Luther  joined,  and 
they  represented,  as  none  of  the  others  did,  all  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  new  movement. 

These  Augustinian  Eremites  had  a  somewhat  curious 


13B  POPULAR    RELIGIOUS    LIFE 

history.  Tliey  liarl  nothing  in  common  with  St.  Augustine 
save  the  name,  and  the  fact  that  a  Pope  had  given  them 
the  rule  of  St.  Augustine  as  a  basis  for  their  monastic 
constitution.  They  had  originally  been  hermits,  living 
solitary  lives  in  mountainous  parts  of  Italy  and  of 
Germany.  Many  Popes  had  desired  to  bring  them  under 
conventual  rule,  and  this  was  at  last  successfully  done. 
They  shared  as  no  other  Order  had  done  in  the  revival 
of  the  second  half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  exhibited 
in  their  lives  all  its  religious  characteristics.  No  Order 
of  monks  contained  such  devoted  servants  of  the  Virgin 
Mother.  She  was  the  patron  along  with  St.  Augustine. 
Her  image  stood  in  the  chapter-house  of  every  convent. 
The  theologians  of  the  Augustinian  Eremites  vied  with 
those  of  the  Franciscans  in  spreading  the  doctrine  of  the 
Immaculate  Conception.  They  did  much  to  spread  the 
cult  of  the  "  Blessed  Anna."  They  were  devoted  to  the 
Papacy.  One  of  their  learned  men,  John  of  Palz,  one  of 
the  two  professors  of  theology  in  the  Erfurt  Convent  when 
Luther  entered  it  as  a  novice,  was  the  most  strenuous 
defender  of  the  doctrine  of  Attrition  and  of  the  religious 
value  of  Indulgences.  With  all  this  their  lives  were  more 
self-denying  than  those  of  most  monks.  They  cultivated 
theological  learning,  and  few  Universities  in  Germany  were 
without  an  Augustinian  Eremite  who  acted  as  professor  of 
philosophy  or  of  theology.  They  also  paid  great  attention 
to  the  art  of  preaching,  and  every  large  monastery  had  a 
special  preacher  who  attracted  crowds  of  the  laity  to  the 
convent  chapeL  Their  monasteries  were  usually  placed  in 
large  towns ;  and  their  devout  lives,  their  learning,  and  the 
popular  gifts  of  their  preachers,  made  them  favourites  with 
the  townspeople.  They  were  the  most  esteemed  Order  in 
Germany. 

These  last  decades  of  the  fifteenth  century  were  the 
days  of  the  resuscitation  of  the  mendicant  Orders  and  the 
revival  of  their  power  over  the  people.  The  better 
disposed  among  the  princes  and  among  the  wealthier 
burghers    invariably    selected    their    confessors    from  the 


NON-ECCLESIASTICAL   RELIGION  13d 

monks  of  the  mendicant  Orders,  and  especially  from  the 
Augustinian  Eremites.  The  chapels  of  the  Franciscana 
and  of  the  Eremites  were  thronged,  and  those  of  the  parish 
clergy  were  deserted.  The  common  people  took  for  their 
religious  guides  men  who  shared  the  new  revival,  and 
iwho  proved  their  sincerity  by  self-denying  labours.  It 
was  in  vain  that  the  Eoman  Curia  published  regulations 
insisting  that  every  parishioner  must  confess  to  the  priest 
of  the  parish  at  least  once  a  year,  and  that  it  explained 
again  and  again  that  the  personal  character  of  the  ministrant 
did  not  affect  the  efficacy  of  the  sacraments  administered 
by  him.  So  long  as  poorly  clad,  emaciated,  clean-living 
Franciscan  or  Eremite  priests  could  be  found  to  act  as  con- 
fessors, priests,  or  preachers,  the  people  deserted  the  parish 
clergy,  flocked  to  their  confessionals,  waited  on  their  serv- 
ing the  Mass,  and  thronged  their  chapels  to  listen  to  their 
sermons.  These  decades  were  the  time  of  the  last  revival 
of  the  mendicant  monks,  who  were  the  religious  guides  in 
this  flamboyant  popular  religion  which  is  so  much  in 
evidence  during  our  period. 

§6.-4  non- Ecclesiastical  Religion, 

The  third  religious  movement  which  belongs  to  the 
last  decades  of  the  fifteenth  and  the  earlier  decades  of 
the  sixteenth  century  was  of  a  kind  so  different  from,  and 
even  contrary  to,  what  has  just  been  described,  that  it  is 
with  some  surprise  that  the  student  finds  he  must  recognise 
its  presence  alongside  of  the  other.  It  was  the  silent, 
spread  of  a  quiet,  sincere,  but  non-ecclesiastical  religion. 
Historians  usually  say  nothing  about  this  movement,  and  it 
is  only  a  minute  study  of  the  town  chronicles  and  of  the 
records  of  provincial  and  municipal  legislation  that  reveals 
its  power  and  extent.  It  has  always  been  recognised  that 
Luther's  father  was  a  man  of  a  deeply  religious  turn  of 
mind,  although  he  commonly  despised  the  clergy,  and 
thought  that  most  monks  were  rogues  or  fools ;  but  what  is 
not  recognised  is  that  in  this  he  represented  thousands  of 


140  POPULAR    RELIGIOUS    LIFE 

quiet  and  pious  Germans  in  all  classes  of  society.  We  find 
traces  of  the  silent,  widespreading  movement  in  the 
ecclesiastical  legislation  of  German  princes;  in  the  police 
regulations,  and  in  the  provisions  for  the  support  of  the 
poor  among  the  burghers ;  in  the  constitutions  and  practices 
of  the  confraternities  among  the  lower  classes,  and  especially 
among  the  artisans  in  the  towns;  and  in  the  numerous 
translations  of  the  Vulgate  into  the  vernacular. 

The  reforms  sketched  by  the  Councils  of  Constance  and 
of  Basel  had  been  utterly  neglected  by  the  Eoman  Curia, 
and  in  consequence  several  German  princes,  while  they  felt 
the  hopelessness  of  insisting  on  a  general  purification  of  the 
Church,  resolved  that  these  reforms  should  be  carried  out 
s  within  their  own  dominions.  As  early  as  1446,  Duke 
William  of  Saxony  had  published  decrees  which  interfered 
with  the  pretensions  of  the  Church  to  be  quite  independent 
of  the  State.  His  regulations  about  the  observance  of  the 
Sunday,  his  forbidding  ecclesiastical  courts  to  interfere  with 
Saxon  laymen,  his  stern  refusal  to  allow  any  Saxon  to 
appeal  to  a  foreign  jurisdiction,  were  all  more  or  less 
instances  of  the  interference  of  the  secular  power  within 
what  had  been  supposed  to  be  the  exclusive  province  of  the 
ecclesiastical  He  went  much  further,  however.  He 
enacted  that  it  belonged  to  the  secular  power  to  see  that 
parish  priests  and  their  superiors  within  his  dominions 
lived  lives  befitting  their  vocation — a  conception  which  was 
entirely  at  variance  with  the  ecclesiastical  pretensions  of 
the  Middle  Ages.  He  also  declared  it  to  be  within  the 
province  of  the  secular  power  to  visit  officially  and  to 
reform  all  the  convents  within  his  dominions.  So  far  as 
proofs  go,  it  is  probable  that  these  declarations  about  the 
rights  of  the  civil  authorities  to  exercise  discipline  over  the 
parish  priests  and  their  superiors  remained  a  dead  letter. 
We  hear  of  no  such  reformation  being  carried  out.  But 
the  visitation  of  the  Saxon  monasteries  was  put  in  force 
in  spite  of  the  protests  of  the  ecclesiastical  powers.  Andreas 
Proles  would  never  have  been  able  to  carry  out  his  proposals 
of  reform  in  the  convents  of  the  Augustinian  Eremites  but 


NON-ECCLESIASTICAL   RELIGION  141 

foi  the  support  he  received  from  the  secular  princes  against 
his  ecclesiastical  superiors  in  Kome.  The  Dukes  Ernest 
and  Albrecht  carried  out  Duke  William's  conceptions  about 
the  relition  of  the  civil  to  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  in 
their  ordinances  of  1483,  and  the  Elector  Frederick  the 
Wise  was  heir  to  this  ecclesiastical  policy  of  his  family. 

The  records  of  the  Electorate  of  Brandenburg,  investi- 
gated by  Priebatsch  and  described  by  him  in  the  Zeitschrift 
filr  KirchengescMchte}  testify  to  the  same  ideas  at  work 
tliere.  A  pious  prince  like  Frederick  ii.  of  Brandenburg 
removed  unworthy  Church  dignitaries  and  reinstituted 
them,  thus  taking  upon  himself  the  oversight  of  the  Church. 
Appeals  to  Kome  were  forbidden  under  penalties.  Gradu- 
ally under  Frederick  and  his  successors  there  arose  what 
was  practically  a  national  Church  of  Brandenburg,  which 
was  almost  completely  under  the  control  of  the  civil  power, 
and  almost  entirely  separated  from  Koman  control. 

The  towns  also  interfered  in  what  had  hitherto  been 
believed  to  be  within  the  exclusive  domain  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical authorities.  They  recognised  the  harm  which  the 
numerous  Church  festivals  and  saints'  days  were  doing  to 
the  people,  and  passed  regulations  about  their  observance, 
all  of  them  tending  to  lessen  the  number  of  the  days  on 
which  men  were  compelled  by  ecclesiastical  law  to  be  idle. 
When  Luther  pleaded  in  his  Address  to  the  Nobility  of  the 
German  Nation  for  the  abolition  of  the  ecclesiastical  laws 
enforcing  idleness  on  the  numerous  ecclesiastical  holy  days, 
he  only  suggested  an  extension  and  wider  application  of 
the  police  regulations  which  were  in  force  within  his  native 
district  of  Mansfeld. 

This  non-ecclesiastical  feeling  appears  strongly  in  the 
change  of  view  about  Christian  charity  which  marks  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

Nothing  shows  how  the  Church  of  the  thirteenth  and 
fourteenth  centuries  had  instilled  the  mind  of  Jesus  into 
the  peoples  of  Eurctpe  like  the  zeal  with  which  they  tried 
to  do  their  duty  by  the  poor,  the  sick,  and  the  helplesa 

»  xix.  p.  397  fiF.,  XX.  p.  159  ff.,  329 flF.,  xzi  p.  iSflC 


142  POPULAR   RELIGIOUS   LIFE 

Institutions,  founded  by  individuals  or  by  corporations,  foi 
the  purpose  of  housing  the  destitute  abounded,  and  men 
and  women  willingly  dedicated  themselves  to  the  service 
of  the  unfortunate 

**The  Beguins  crowned  with  flapping  hats, 
O'er  long-drawn  bloodless  faces  blank, 
And  gowns  unwashed  to  wrap  their  lank 
Lean  figures,"* 

were  sisters  of  mercy  in  every  mediaeval  town.  Unfor- 
tunately the  lessons  of  the  Church  included  the  thought 
that  begging  was  a  Christian  virtue ;  while  the  idea  that 
because  charity  is  taught  by  the  law  of  Christ,  its  exercise 
must  be  everywhere  superintended  by  ecclesiastics,  was 
slevated  to  a  definite  principle  of  action,  if  not  to  something 
directly  commanded  by  the  law  of  God.  The  Eeformation 
protested  against  these  two  ideas,  and  the  silent  anticipa- 
tion of  this  protest  is  to  be  found  in  the  non- ecclesiastical 
piety  of  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

The  practice  of  begging,  its  toleration  and  even  encour- 
agement, was  almost  universal.  In  some  of  the  benevolent 
institutions  the  sick  and  the  pensioners  were  provided  from 
the  endowment  with  all  the  necessaries  of  life,  but  it  was 
generally  thought  becoming  that  they  should  beg  them  from 
the  charitable.  The  very  fact  of  begging  seemed  to  raise 
those  who  shared  in  it  to  the  level  of  members  of  a 
religious  association.  St.  Francis,  the  "  imitator  of  Christ," 
had  taught  his  followers  to  beg,  and  this  great  example 
sanctified  the  practice.  It  is  true  that  the  begging  friars 
were  always  the  butt  of  the  satirists  of  the  close  of  the 
fifteenth  century.  They  delighted  to  portray  the  mendi- 
cant monk,  with  his  sack,  into  which  he  seemed  able  to 
stuJBf  everything:  honey  and  spice,  nutmegs,  pepper,  and 
preserved  ginger,  cabbage  and  eggs,  poultry,  fish,  and  new 
clothes,  milk,  butter,  and  cheese ;  cheese  especially,  and  of 
all  kinds — ewe's  milk  and  goat's  milk,  hard  cheese  and 
soft  cheese,  large  cheeses  and  small  cheeses — were  greedily 

*  The  Bomanceo/the  Rose,  il.  p.  168  (Temple  Classics  edition). 


NON-ECCLESIASTICAL   RELIGION  143 

demanded  by  these  "cheese  hunters/'  as  they  were 
satmcally  called.  On  their  heels  tramped  a  host  of  semi- 
ecclesiastical  beggars,  all  of  them  with  professional  names — 
men  who  begged  for  a  church  that  was  building,  or  for  an 
altar-cloth,  or  to  hansel  a  young  priest  at  his  first  Mass ; 
men  who  carried  relics  about  for  the  charitable  to  kiss — ■ 
some  straw  from  the  manger  of  Bethlehem,  or  a  feather 
from  the  wing  of  the  angel  Gabriel ;  the  Brethren  of  St. 
James,  who  performed  continual  and  vicarious  pilgrimages 
to  Compostella,  and  sometimes  robbed  and  murdered  on 
the  road ;  the  Brethren  of  St.  Anthony,  who  had  the 
special  privilege  of  wearing  a  cross  and  carrying  a  bell  on 
their  begging  visits.  These  were  all  ecclesiastical  beggars. 
The  ordinary  beggars  did  their  best  to  obtain  some  share 
of  the  sanctity  which  surrounded  the  profession ;  they 
carried  with  them  the  picture  of  some  saint,  or  placed  the 
cockle-shell,  the  badge  of  a  pilgrim,  in  their  hats,  and 
secured  a  quasi-ecclesiastical  standing.^  Luther  expressed 
not  merely  his  own  opinion  on  this  plague  of  beggars  in 
his  Address  to  the  Nuhility  of  the  German  Nation,  but  what 
had  been  thought  and  partially  practised  by  quiet  laymen 
for  several  decades.  Some  towns  began  to  make  regulations 
against  promiscuous  begging  by  able-bodied  persons,  pro- 
vided work  for  them,  seized  their  children,  and  taught 
them  trades — all  of  which  sensible  doings  were  against  the 
spirit  of  the  mediaeval  Church. 

The  non-ecclesiastical  religious  feeling,  however,  appears 
much  more  clearly  when  the  history  of  the  charitable 
foundations  is  examined.  The  invariable  custom  during 
the  earlier  Middle  Ages  was  that  charitable  bequests  were 
left  to  the  management  of  the  Church  and  the  clergy. 
At  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  custom  began 
to  alter.  The  change  from  clerical  to  lay  management 
was  at  first  probably  due  mainly  to  the  degeneracy  of  the 
clergy,  and  to  the  belief  that  the  funds  set  apart  for  the 
poor  were  not  properly  administered.  The  evidences  of 
tliis  are  to  be  found   in   numerous   instances  of  the  civic 

*  T.  Bezold,  Gcschichtc  der  deulschen  RcforvicUion,  pp.  95  f. 


144  POPULAR   RELIGIOUS   LIFE 

authorities   attempting,   and    successfully,    to    take    the 
management  of  charitable  foundations  out  of   the  hands 
of   ecclesiastical    authorities,    and    to    vest    them    in    lay 
management.     But  this  cannot  have  been  the  case  always. 
We  should  rather  say  that  it  began  to  dawn  upon  men 
that  althougli  charity  was  part  of  the  law  of  Christ,  this 
did  not  necessarily  mean  that  all  charities  must  be  placed 
under  the    control   of    the  clergy  or    other    ecclesiastical 
administrators.     Hence  we  find  during  the  later  years  of 
the  fifteenth  century  continual  instances  of  bequests  for 
the  poor  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  town  council  or  of 
boards   of    laymen.      That   this    was    done    without   any 
animus  against  the  Church  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  the 
same  testator  is  found  giving  benefactions  to  foundations 
which  are  under  clerical  and  to  others  under  lay  manage- 
ment.   Out  of  the  funds  thus  accumulated  the  town  councils 
began  a  system  of  caring  for  the  poor  of  the  city,  which 
consisted  in  giving  tokens  which  could  be  exchanged  for  so 
much  bread  or  woollen  cloth,  or  shoes,  or  wood  for  firing,  at 
the  shops  of  dealers  who  were  engaged  for  the  purpose.    How 
far  this  new  and  previously  unheard  of  lay  management,  in 
what  had  hitherto  been  the  peculiar  possession  of  the  clergy, 
had  spread  before  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  it  is 
impossible    to    say.     No  archaiologist    has  yet    made    an 
exhaustive  study  of  the  evidence  lying  buried  in  archives 
of  the  mediaeval  towns  of  Germany;  but  enough  has  been 
collected   by  Kriegk^    and  others   to   show   that    it    had 
become  very  extensive,      the  laity  saw  that   they   were 
quite  able  to  perform  this  peculiarly  Christian  work  apart 
from  any  clerical  direction. 

Another  interesting  series  of  facts  serves  also  to  show 
the  growth  of  a  non-ecclesiastical  religious  sentiment.  The 
later  decades  of  the  fifteen tli  century  saw  the  rise  of 
innumerable  associations,  some  of  them  definitely  rehgious, 

*  Kriegk,  Deutsches  Bilrgerthvm  im  MittelaZter.  Nach  urkuiuiluhen 
Forschungen  nnd  mit  htsondcrer  Beziehnng  anf  Franl'fnrt  a.  M.,  pp.  161  ff. 
(Frankfurt,  1868).  Uhlhorn,  Die  chridliche  LiehesthMigkeit  im  MittdalUr, 
pp.  481  ff.  (Stuttgart,  1854). 


NON-ECCLESIASTICAL    RELIGION  145 

I  and  all  of  them  with  a  religious  side,  which  are  unlike 
'  what  we  meet  with  earlier.  They  did  not  aim  to  be,  like 
the  praying  circles  of  the  Mystics  or  of  the  Gottcsfreunde^ 
ecclesiolce  in  ecclcsia,  strictly  non-clerical  or  even  anti- 
clerical. They  had  no  difficulty  in  placing  themselves  under 
the  protection  of  the  Church,  in  selecting  the  ordinary 
ecclesiastical  buildings  for  their  special  services,  and  in 
employing  priests  to  conduct  their  devotions ;  but  they  were 
distinctively  lay  associations,  and  lived  a  religious  life  in 
their  own  way,  without  any  regard  to  the  conceptions  of 
the  higher  Christian  life  which  the  Church  was  accustomed 
to  present  to  its  devout  disciples.  Some  were  associations 
for  prayer ;  others  for  the  promotion  of  the  "  cult "  of  a 
special  saint,  like  the  confraternities  dedicated  to  the 
Virgin  Mother  or  the  associations  which  spread  the  "  cult " 
of  the  Blessed  Anna ;  but  by  far  the  largest  number  were 
combinations  of  artisans,  and  resembled  the  workmen's 
"  gilds  "  of  the  Eoman  Empire. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  best  known  of  these  associations 
formed  for  the  purpose  of  encouraging  prayer  was  the 
"  Brotherhood  of  the  Eleven  Thousand  Virgins,"  commonly 
known  under  the  quaint  name  of  St.  Ursula's  Little  Ship. 
The  association  was  conceived  by  a  Carthusian  monk  of 
Cologne,  and  it  speedily  became  popular.  Frederick  the 
Wise  was  one  of  its  patrons,  his  secretary,  Dr.  Pfeffinger, 
one  of  its  supporters ;  it  numbered  its  associates  by  the 
thousand ;  its  praises  were  sung  in  a  quaint  old  German 
hymn.^  No  money  dues  were  exacted  from  its  members. 
The  only  duty  exacted  was  to  pray  regularly,  and  to  learn 
to  better  one's  life  through  the  power  of  prayer.  This  was 
one  type  of  the  pious  brotherhoods  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

*  Wackemagel,  Das  deutsche  Kirchenlied,  ii.  768-769  ;  it  began : 

"  Ein  zeyt  hort  ich  mit  gutter  mer 
von  einem  schyfflin  sagen, 
Wie  es  mit  tngeiiden  also  gar 
kostlichen  war  beladen  : 

Zu  dem  schyfflin  gewan  icli  ein  herts. 
Ich  fand  dar  yn  vil  giiter  gemertz 
in  mancher  hande  gaden." 
lO* 


146  POPULAR    RELIGIOUS    LIFE 

It  was  the  best  known  of  its  kind,  and  there  were  many 
others.  But  among  the  brotherhoods  which  bear  testi- 
mony to  the  spread  of  a  non-ecclesiastical  piety  none  are 
more  important  than  the  confraternities  which  went  by  the 
names  of  Kalands  or  Kalandsgilden  in  North  Germany  and 
Zechen  in  Austria.  These  associations  were  useful  in  a 
variety  of  ways.  They  were  unions  for  the  practice  of 
religion ;  for  mutual  aid  in  times  of  sickness ;  for  defence 
in  attack ;  and  they  also  served  the  purpose  of  insurance 
societies  and  of  burial  clubs.  It  is  with  their  religious 
side  that  we  have  here  to  do.  It  was  part  of  the  bond  of 
association  that  all  the  brethren  and  sisters  (for  women 
were  commonly  admitted)  should  meet  together  at  stated 
times  for  a  common  religious  service.  The  brotherhood 
selected  the  church  in  which  this  was  held,  and  so  far 
as  we  can  see  the  chapels  of  the  Franciscans  or  of  the 
Augustinian  Eremites  were  generally  chosen.  Sometimes 
an  altar  was  relegated  to  their  exclusive  use ;  sometimes, 
if  the  church  was  a  large  one,  a  special  chapel.  The 
interesting  thing  to  be  noticed  is  that  the  rules  and  the 
modes  of  conducting  the  religious  services  of  the  associa- 
tion were  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  brotherhood  itself, 
and  that  these  laymen  insisted  on  regulating  them  in 
their  own  way.  Luther  has  a  very  interesting  sermon, 
entitled  Sermon  upon  the  venerahle  Sacrament  of  the  holy 
true  Body  of  Christ  and  of  the  Brotherhoods,  the  latter 
half  of  which  is  devoted  to  a  contrast  between  good 
brotherhoods  and  evil  ones.  Those  brotherhoods  are  evil, 
says  Luther,  in  which  the  religion  of  the  brethren  is  ex- 
pressed in  hearing  a  Mass  on  one  or  two'  days  of  the  year, 
while  by  guzzling  and  drinking  continually  at  the  meetings 
of  the  brotherhood,  they  contrive  to  serve  the  devil  the 
greatei  part  of  their  time.  A  true  brotherhood  spreads 
its  table  for  its  poorer  members,  it  aids  those  who  are  sick 
or  infirm,  it  provides  marriage  portions  for  worthy  young 
members  of  the  association.  He  ends  with  a  comparison 
between  the  true  brotherhood  and  the  Church  of  Christ. 
Theodore  Kolde  remarks  that  a  careful  monograph  on  the 


NON-ECCLESIASTICAL   RELIGION  147 

brotherhoods  of  the  3nd  of  the  fifteenth  century  in  the  light 
of  this  sermon  of  liUtlier's  would  afford  great  information 
about  the  popular  religion  of  the  period  Unfortunately, 
no  one  has  yet  attempted  the  task,  but  German  archaeo- 
logists are  slowly  preparing  the  way  by  printing,  chiefly 
from  MS.  sources,  accounts  of  the  constitution  and  practices 
of  many  of  these  Kalands. 

From  all  this  it  may  be  seen  that  there  was  in  these 
last  decades  of  the  fifteenth  and  in  the  earlier  of  the 
sixteenth  centuries  the  growth  of  what  may  be  called  a 
non -ecclesiastical  piety,  which  was  quietly  determined  to 
bring  within  the  sphere  of  the  laity  very  much  that  had 
been  supposed  to  belong  exclusively  to  the  clergy.  The 
jus  episcopale  which  Luther  claimed  for  the  civil  authorities 
in  his  tract  on  the  Liberty  of  the  Christian  Man,  had,  in 
part  at  least,  been  claimed  and  exercised  in  several  of  the 
German  principalities  and  municipalities;  the  practice  of 
Christian  charity  and  its  management  were  being  taken 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  clergy  and  entrusted  to  the  laity  ; 
and  the  brotherhoods  were  making  it  apparent  that  men 
could  mark  out  their  religious  duties  in  a  way  deemed 
most  suitable  for  themselves  without  asking  any  aid  from 
the  Church,  further  than  to  engage  a  priest  whom  they 
trusted  to  conduct  divine  service  and  say  the  Masses  they 
had  arranged  for. 

The  appearance  of  numerous  translations  of  the  Scrip- 
tures into  the  vernacular,  unauthorised  by  the  officials  of 
the  mediaeval  Church,  and  jealously  suspected  by  them, 
appears  to  confirm  the  growth  and  spread  of  this  non- 
ecclesiastical  piety.  The  relation  of  the  Church  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  earlier  and  later,  to  vernacular  translations 
of  the  Vulgate  is  a  complex  question.  The  Scriptures  were 
always  declared  to  be  the  supreme  source  and  authority 
for  all  questions  of  doctrines  and  morals,  and  in  the  earlier 
stages  of  the  Eeformation  controversy  the  supreme  author- 
ity of  the  Holy  Scri])tuies  was  not  supposed  to  be  one  of 
the  matters  in  dispute  between  the  contending  parties. 
This   is   evident   when   we   remember   that   the   Augsburg 


148  POPULAR   RELIGIOUS   LIFE 

Confession,  unlike  the  later  confessions  of  the  Reformed 
Churches,  does  not  contain  any  article  affirming  the 
supreme  authority  of  Scripture.  That  was  not  supposed 
to  be  a  matter  of  debate.  It  was  reserved  for  the  Council 
of  Trent,  for  the  first  time,  to  place  traditiones  sine  Scripto 
on  the  same  level  of  authority  with  the  Scriptures  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments.  Hence,  many  of  the  small 
books,  issued  from  convent  presses  for  the  instruction 
of  the  people  during  the  decades  preceding  the  Refor- 
mation, frequently  declare  that  the  whole  teaching  of 
the  Church  is  to  be  found  within  the  books  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures. 

It  is,  of  course,  undoubted  that  the  mediaeval  Church 
forbade  over  and  over  again  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures 
in  the  Vulgate  and  especially  in  the  vernacular,  but 
it  may  be  asserted  that  these  prohibitions  were  almost 
always  connected  with  attempts  to  suppress  heretical  or 
schismatic  revolts.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  no  official  encouragement  of  the 
reading  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  vernacular  by  the  people 
can  be  found  during  the  whole  of  the  Middle  Ages,  nor  any 
official  patronage  of  vernacular  translations.  The  utmost 
that  was  done  in  the  way  of  tolerating,  it  can  scarcely  be 
said  of  encouraging,  a  knowledge  of  the  vernacular  Scrip- 
tures was  the  issue  of  Psalters  in  the  vernacular,  of  Service- 
Books,  and,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  of  the  Plenaria — 
little  books  which  contained  translations  of  some  of  the 
paragraphs  of  the  Gospels  and  Epistles  read  in  the  Church 
service  accompanied  with  legends  and  popular  tales. 
Translations  of  the  Scriptures  were  continually  reprobated 

*  The  strongest  prohibition  of  the  vernacular  Scriptures  comes  from  the 
time  of  the  Albigenses :  "  Prohibemus  etiam,  ne  libros  veteris  Testamenti  aut 
novi  permittantur  habere  ;  nisi  forte  psalterium,  vel  brevarium  pro  divinis 
officiis,  aut  horas  B.  Marise  aliquis  ex  devotione  habere  velit.  Sed  ne  prae- 
missos  libros  habeant  in  vulgari  translatos,  arctissime  inhibemus"  {Cone. 
of  Toulouse  of  1229,  c.  xiv.).  The  Constitutiones  Thomce  Ariuidel,  for 
the  mediaeval  Church  of  England,  declared:  "Ordinamus  ut  nemo  dein- 
ceps  aliquem  textum  S.  Scripturse  auctoritate  sua  in  linguani  Anglicanam 
fel  aliam  transferat  per  viam  libri,  libelli  aut  tractatus"  (Art.  VII. 
1408  A.D.). 


THE   SCRIPTURES    IN   THE   VERNACULAR  149 

by  Popes  and  primates  for  various  reasons  J  It  is  also 
unquestionable  that  a  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  in  the 
vernacular,  especially  by  uneducated  men  and  women, 
was  almost  always  deemed  a  sign  of  heretical  tendency. 
"  The  third  cause  of  heresy,"  says  an  Austrian  inquisitor, 
writing  about  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  "  is  that 
they  translate  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  into  the  vulgar 
tongue ;  and  so  they  learn  and  teach.  I  have  heard  and 
seen  a  certain  country  clown  who  repeated  the  Book  of 
Job  word  for  word,  and  several  who  knew  the  New  Testa- 
ment perfectly."  *  A  survey  of  the  evidence  seems  to  lead 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  rulers  of  the  mediaeval  Church 
regarded  a  knowledge  of  the  vernacular  Scriptures  with 
grave  suspicion,  but  that  they  did  not  go  the  length  of 
condemning  entirely  their  possession  by  persons  esteemed 
trustworthy,  whether  clergy,  monks,  nuns,  or  distinguished 
laymen. 

Yet  we  have  in  the  later  Middle  Ages,  ever  since 
Wiclif  produced  his  English  version,  the  gradual  publica- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  in  the  vernaculars  of  Europe.  This 
was  specially  so  in  Germany ;  and  when  the  invention  of 
printing  had  made  the  diffusion  of  literature  easy,  it  is 
noteworthy  that  the  earliest  presses  in  Germany  printed 
many  more  books  for  family  and  private  devotion,  many 
more  Flenaria,  and  many  more  editions  of  the  Bible  than 
of  the  classics.  Twenty  -  two  editions  of  the  Psalter 
in  German  appeared  before  1509,  and  twenty -five  of 
the  Gospels  and  Epistles  before  1518.  No  less  than 
fourteen  (some  say  seventeen)  versions  of  the  whole  Bible 
were  printed  in  High-German  and  three  in  Low-German 
during  the  last  decades  of  the  fifteenth  and  the  earlier 
decades  of  the  sixteenth  century — all  translations  from  the 

*  Pope  InnCFcent  lii.  reprobated  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  the 
vernacular,  because  ordinary  laymen,  and  especially  women,  had  not  suffi- 
cient intelligence  to  understand  them  [E'pistolce,  ii.  141) ;  and  Berthold, 
Archbishop  of  Mainz,  in  his  diocesan  edict  of  1486,  asserted  that  vernaculars 
were  unable  to  express  the  profundity  of  the  thoughts  contained  in  t}ie 
original  languages  of  th3  Scriptures  or  in  the  Latin  of  the  Vulgate. 

'  Magna  BibliotJieca  Patrum  (Coloniae  Agrippinae,  1618),  xiii.  299, 


150  POPULAR    RELIGIOUS    LIFE 

Vulgate.  The  first  was  issued  by  John  Metzel  in  Strasa- 
burg  in  1466.  Then  followed  another  Strassburg  edition 
in  1470,  two  Augsburg  editions  in  1473,  one  in  the  Swiss 
dialect  in  1474,  two  in  Augsburg  in  1477,  one  in  Augs- 
burg in  1480,  one  in  Nurnberg  in  1483,  one  in  Strassburg 
in  1485,  and  editions  in  Augsburg  in  1487,  1490,  1507, 
and  1518.  A  careful  comparison  of  these  printed  ver- 
nacular Bibles  proves  that  the  earlier  editions  were  in- 
dependent productions  ;  but  as  edition  succeeded  edition 
the  text  became  gradually  assimilated  until  there  came 
into  existence  a  German  Vulgate,  which  was  used  indis- 
criminately by  those  who  adhered  to  the  mediaeval  Church 
and  those  who  were  dissenters  from  it.  These  German 
versions  were  largely,  but  by  no  means  completely,  dis- 
placed by  Luther's  translation.  The  Anabaptists,  for  ex- 
ample, retained  this  German  Vulgate  long  after  the 
publication  of  Luther's  version,  and  these  pre-Eeformation 
German  Bibles  were  to  be  found  in  use  almost  two  hundred 
years  after  the  Eeformation.^ 

Whence  sprang  the  demand  for  these  vernacular  ver- 
sions of  the  Holy  Scriptures  ?  That  the  leaders  of  the 
mediaeval  Church  viewed  their  existence  with  alarm  is 
evident  from  the  proclamation  of  the  Primate  of  Germany, 
Berthold  of  Mainz,  issued  in  1486,  ordering  a  censorship 
of  books  with  special  reference  to  vernacular  translations 
of  the  Scriptures.^  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  evi- 
dence that  these  versions  were  either  wholly  or  in  great 
part  the  work  of  enemies  of  the  mediaeval  Church.  The 
mediaeval  Brethren,  as  they  called  themselves  (Waldenses, 
Picards,  Wiclifites,  Hussites,  etc.,  were  names  given  to 
them  very  indiscriminately  by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities), 
had  translations  of  the  Scriptures  both  in  the  Eomance 
and  in  the  Teutonic  languages  as  early  as  the  close  of  the 
thirteenth  century.  The  records  of  inquisitors  and  of 
councils  prove  it.  But  there  is  no  evidence  to  connect 
any  of  these  German  versions,  save,  perhaps,  one  at  Augs- 

^  Walther,  Die  deutscJoe  Bibeliibersetzung  des  Mittelalters  CBninswyck,  1889),. 
•  Gudenus,  Codex  Diplomatic.  Anecdota,  iv.  469-475  (1758). 


THE   SCRIPTURES   IN   THE   VERNACULAR         151 

burg,  and  that  issued  by  the  Koburgers  in  Niirnberg,  with 
these  earlier  translations.  The  growing  spread  of  educa- 
tion in  the  fifteenth  century,  and,  above  all,  the  growth  of 
a  non-ecclesiastical  piety  which  claimed  to  examine  and  to 
judge  for  itself,  demanded  and  received  these  numeroi* 
versions  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  the  vulgar  tongue.^ 
The  "  common  man  "  had  the  word  of  God  in  his  hands, 
could  read,  meditate,  and  judge  for  himself.  The  effect  of 
the  presence  of  these  vernacular  Scriptures  is  apt  to  be 
exaggerated.^  The  Humanist,  Conrad  Celtes,  might  threaten 
the  priests  that  the  Bible  would  soon  be  seen  in  every  village 
tavern ;  but  we  know  that  in  these  days  of  early  printing 
a  complete  Bible  must  have  been  too  expensive  to  be  pur- 
chased by  a  poor  man.  Still  he  could  get  the  Gospels  or 
the  Epistles,  or  the  Psalter ;  and  there  is  evidence,  apart 
from  the  number  of  editions,  that  the  people  were  buying 
and  were  studying  the  Scriptures.  Preachers  were  exhorted 
to  give  the  meaning  of  the  passages  of  Scripture  read  in 
Church  to  prevent  the  people  being  confused  by  the  dif- 
ferent ways  in  which  the  text  was  translated  in  the  Bibles 
in  their  possession.  Stories  were  told  of  peasants,  hke 
Hans  Werner,  who  worsted  their  parish  priests  in  argu- 
ments drawn  from  Scripture.  The  ecclesiastical  authorities 
were  undoubtedly  anxious,  and  their  anxiety  was  shared  by 
many  who  desired  a  reformation  in  life  and  manners,  but 
dreaded  any  revolutionary  movement.  It  was  right  that 
the  children  should  be  fed  with  the  Bread  of  Life,  but 
Mother  Church  ought  to  keep  the  bread-knife  in  her  hands 
lest  the  children  cut  their  fingers.  Some  publishers  of 
the  translations  inserted  prefaces  saying  that  the  contents 
of  the  volumes  should  be  understood  in  the  way  taught 
by  the  Church,  as  was  done  in  the  Booh  of  the  Gospels, 

*  Walther,  Die  devische  Bibeluhersetzungen  des  Mittelalter*  (Bruuswick, 
1889). 

■  Sebastian  Brand,  Na/rrenschiff,  Preface,  lines  1-4  : 

*•  AUe  Land  ist  jetz  voll  heilger  Schrift^ 
Und  was  der  seelen  Heil  betrifft 
Bibel  und  heilger  Vater  Lehr 
Und  andrer  frommen  Biicher  mehr,* 


152  POPULAR    RELIGIOUS   LIFE 

published  at  Basel  in  1514.  But  in  spite  of  all  a  lay 
religion  had  come  into  being,  and  laymen  were  beginning 
to  think  for  themselves  in  matters  where  ecclesiastics  had 
hitherto  been  considered  the  sole  judges. 

I  7,   The  **  Brethren," 

There  was  another  type  of  religious  life  and  pious 
association  which  existed,  and  which  seems  in  one  form 
or  other  to  have  exercised  a  great  influence  among  the 
better  class  of  artisans,  and  more  especially  among  the 
printers  of  Augsburg,  Nurnberg,  and  Strassburg. 

It  is  probable  that  this  type  of  piety  had  at  least  three 
roots. 
r  (a)  We  can  trace  as  far  back  as  the  closing  years  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  in  many  parts  of  Germany,  the 
existence  of  nonconformists  who,  on  the  testimony  of  in- 
quisitors, lived  pious  lives,  acted  righteously  towards  their 
neighbours,  and  believed  in  all  the  articles  of  the  Christian 
faith,  but  repudiated  the  Eoman  Church  and  the  clergy. 
Their  persecutors  gave  them  a  high  character.  "  The 
heretics  are  known  by  their  walk  and  conversation :  they 
live  quietly  and  modestly ;  they  have  no  pride  in  dress ; 
their  learned  men  are  tailors  and  weavers ;  they  do  not 
heap  up  riches,  but  are  content  with  what  is  necessary; 
they  live  chastely  ;  they  are  temperate  in  eating  and  drink- 
ing ;  they  never  go  to  taverns,  nor  to  public  dances,  nor  to 
any  such  vanities ;  they  refrain  from  all  foul  language, 
from  backbiting,  from  thoughtless  speech,  from  lying  and 
from  swearing."  The  list  of  objections  which  they  had  to 
usages  of  the  mediaeval  Church  are  those  which  would 
occur  to  any  evangelical  Protestant  of  this  century.  They 
professed  a  simple  evangelical  creed  ;  they  offered  a  passive 
resistance  to  the  hierarchical  and  priestly  pretensions  of 
the  clergy ;  they  were  careful  to  educate  their  children 
in  schools  which  they  supported ;  they  had  vernacular 
translations  of  the  Scriptures,  and  committed  large  portions 
to  memory ;  they  conducted  their  religioas  service  in  the 


THE  "brethren"  153 

vernacular,  and  it  was  one  of  the  accusations  made  against 
them  that  they  alleged  that  the  word  of  God  was  as  pro- 
fitable when  read  in  the  vernacular  as  when  studied  in 
Latin.  It  is  also  interesting  to  know  that  they  were 
accused  of  visiting  the  leper-houses  to  pray  with  the  inmates, 
and  that  in  some  towns  they  had  schools  for  the  leper 
children.^  They  called  themselves  the  Brethren.  The 
societies  of  the  Brethren  had  never  died  out.  During  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  they  were  continually 
subject  to  local  and  somewhat  spasmodic  persecutions, 
when  the  ecclesiastical  could  secure  the  aid  of  the  secular 
authorities  to  their  schemes  of  repression,  which  was 
not  always  possible.  They  were  strongly  represented 
among  the  artisans  in  the  great  cities,  and  there  are 
instances  when  the  civic  authorities  gave  them  one  of  the 
churches  of  the  towns  for  their  services.  The  liability  to 
intermittent  persecution  led  to  an  organisation  whereby  the 
Brethren,  who  were  for  the  time  being  living  in  peace, 
made  arrangements  to  receive  and  support  those  who  were 
able  to  escape  from  any  district  where  the  persecution 
raged.  These  societies  were  in  correspondence  with  their 
brethren  all  over  Europe,  and  were  never  so  active  as 
during  the  last  decades  of  the  fifteenth  and  the  first 
quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

(5)  As  early  as  the  times  of  Meister  Eckhart  (d.  1327), 
of  his  disciples  Tauler  (d.  1361)  and  Suso  (d  1366),  of 
the  mysterious  "  Friend  of  God  in  the  Oberland  "  and  his 
associates  (among  them  the  Strassburg  merchant  Kulman 
Merswin  (d.  1382)),  and  of  the  Brussels  curate  John 
Euysbroeck  (d.  1381),  the  leaders  of  the  mediaeval  Mystics 
had  been  accustomed  to  gather  their  followers  together 
into  praying  circles ;  and  the  custom  was  perpetuated  long 
after  their  departure.  How  these  pious  associations  con- 
tinued to  exist  in  the  half  century  before  the  Eeformation, 
and  what  forms  their  organisation  took,  it  seems  impossible 
to  say  with  any  accuracy.    The  school  system  of  the  Brethren 

*  Magna  Bibliotheca  Patrum  (Colonise  Agrippinae,  1618),  vol.  xiii.  pp. 
299-301. 


154  POPULAR   RELIGIOUS    LIFE 

of  the  Common  Lot,  which  always  had  an  intimate  connection 
with  the  Gottesfreunde,  in  all  probability  served  to  spread 
the  praying  circles  which  had  come  down  from  the  earlier 
Mystics.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  custom  among  these 
Brethren  of  the  Common  Lot  to  invite  their  neighbours  to 
meet  in  their  schoolrooms  or  in  a  hall  to  listen  to  reli- 
gious discourses.  There  they  read  and  expounded  the  New 
Testament  in  the  vernacular.  They  also  read  extracts 
from  books  written  to  convey  popular  religious  instruction. 
They  questioned  their  audience  to  find  out  how  far  their 
hearers  understood  their  teaching,  and  endeavoured  by 
question  and  answer  to  discover  and  solve  rehgious  diffi- 
culties. These  schools  and  teachers  had  extended  all  over 
Germany  by  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  their 
eS'ect  in  quickening  and  keeping  alive  personal  religion 
must  have  been  great. 

(c)  Then,  altogether  apart  from  the  social  and  semi- 
political  propaganda  of  the  Hussites,  there  is  evidence  that 
ever  since  the  circulation  of  the  encyclic  letter  addressed 
by  the  Taborites  in  November  1431  to  all  Christians  in 
all  lands,  and  more  especially  since  the  foundation  of  the 
Unitas  Fratrum  in  1452,  there  had  been  constant  com- 
munication between  Bohemia  and  the  scattered  bodies 
of  evangelical  dissenters  throughout  Germany.  Probably 
historians  have  credited  the  Hussites  with  more  than 
their  due  influence  over  their  German  sympathisers.  The 
latter  had  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  tithes  ought  to 
be  looked  upon  as  free-will  offerings,  that  the  cup  should 
be  given  to  the  laity,  etc.,  long  before  the  movements  under 
the  leadership  of  Wiclif  and  of  Huss.  But  the  knowledge 
that  they  had  sympathisers  and  brethren  beyond  their  own 
land  must  have  been  a  source  of  strength  to  the  German 
nonconformists. 

Our  knowledge  of  the  times  is  still  too  obscure  to 
warrant  us  m  making  very  definite  statements  about 
the  proportionate  effect  of  these  three  religious  sources 
of  influence  on  the  small  communities  of  Brethren  or 
evangelical  dissenters    from   the   mediaeval  Church   which 


THE  ''brethren'*  155 

maintained  a  precarious  existence  at  the  close  of  tho  Middle 
Ages.  There  is  one  curious  fact,  however,  which  shows 
that  there  must  have  been  an  intimate  connection  between 
the  Waldenses  of  Savoy  and  France,  the  Brethren  of  Ger- 
many, and  the  Unitas  Fratrum  of  Bohemia.  They  all  used 
the  same  catechism  for  the  instruction  of  their  children  in 
divine  things.  So  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  this  small 
catechism  was  first  printed  in  1498,  and  editions  can  be 
traced  down  to  1 530.  It  exists  in  French,  Italian,  German, 
and  Bohemian.  The  inspiration  drawn  from  the  earlier 
Mystics  and  Gottesfreunde  is  shown  by  the  books  circulated 
by  the  Brethren.  They  made  great  use  of  the  newly  dis- 
covered art  of  printing  to  spread  abroad  small  mystical 
writings  on  personal  religion,  and  translations  of  portions 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  They  printed  and  circulated  books 
which  had  been  used  in  manuscript  among  the  Mystics  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  such  as  the  celebrated  Masterhook, 
single  sermons  by  Tauler,  Prayers  and  Kules  for  holy  living 
extracted  from  his  writings,  as  well  as  short  tracts  taken 
from  the  later  Mystics,  like  the  Explanation  of  the  Ten 
Commandments.  It  is  also  probable  that  some  of  the  many 
translations  of  the  whole  or  portions  of  the  Bible  which 
were  in  circulation  in  Germany  before  the  days  of  Luther 
came  from  these  praying  circles.  The  celebrated  firm  of 
Niirnberg  printers,  the  Koburgers,  who  published  so  many 
Bibles,  were  the  German  printers  of  the  little  catechism 
used  by  the  Brethren ;  and,  as  has  been  said,  the  Anabap- 
tists, who  were  the  successors  of  these  associations,  did  not 
use  Luther's  version,  but  a  much  older  one  which  had  come 
down  to  them  from  their  ancestors. 

The  members  of  these  praying  circles  welcomed  the 
Lutheran  Eeformation  when  it  came,  but  they  can  scarcely 
be  said  to  have  belonged  to  it.  Luther  has  confessed  how 
much  he  owed  to  one  of  their  publications,  Die  deutsche 
Theologie  ;  and  what  helped  him  must  have  benefited  others. 
The  organisation  of  a  Lutheian  Church,  based  on  civil 
divisions  of  the  Empire,  gave  the  signal  for  a  thorough 
reorganisation  of   the   members   of    these  old  associations 


156  POPULAR   RELIGIOUS    LIFE 

who  refused  to  have  anything  to  do  with  a  State  Church. 
They  formed  the  best  side  of  the  very  mixed  and  very 
much  misunderstood  movement  which  later  was  called 
Anabaptism,  and  thus  remained  outside  of  the  two  great 
divisions  into  which  the  Church  of  the  Keformation 
separated.  This  religious  type  existed  and  showed  itself 
more  especially  among  the  artisans  in  the  larger  towns 
of  Germany. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  these  four  classes  of 
religious  sentiment  which  have  been  found  existing  during 
the  later  decades  of  the  fifteenth  and  the  early  decades 
of  the  sixteenth  centuries  can  always  be  clearly  distin- 
guished from  each  other.  Eeligious  types  cannot  be  kept 
distinct,  but  continually  blend  with  each  other  in  the  most 
unexpected  way.  Humanism  and  Anabaptism  seem  as  far 
apart  as  they  can  possibly  be ;  yet  some  of  the  most 
noted  Anabaptist  leaders  were  distinguished  members  of 
the  Erasmus  circle  at  Basel  Humanism  and  delicate 
clinging  to  the  simple  faith  of  childhood  blended  in  the 
exquisite  character  of  Melanchthon.  Luther,  after  his 
stern  wrestle  with  self-righteousness  in  the  convent  at 
Erfurt,  believed  that,  had  his  parents  been  dead,  he  could 
have  delivered  their  souls  from  purgatory  by  his  visits  to 
the  shrines  of  the  saints  at  Eome.  The  boy  Mecum 
(Myconius)  retained  only  so  much  of  his  father's  teaching 
about  the  free  Grace  of  God  that  he  believed  an  Indulgence 
from  Tetzel  would  benefit  him  if  he  could  obtain  it  without 
paying  for  it.  There  is  everywhere  and  at  all  times  a 
blending  of  separate  types  of  religious  faith,  until  a  notable 
crisis  brings  men  suddenly  face  to  face  with  the  necessity 
of  a  choice.  Such  a  crisis  occurred  during  the  period  we 
call  the  Keformation,  with  the  result  that  the  leaders  in 
that  great  religious  revival  found  that  the  truest  theology 
after  all  was  what  had  expressed  itself  in  hymns  and 
prayers,  in  revivalist  sermons  and  in  fireside  teaching,  and 
that  they  felt  it  to  be  their  duty  as  theologians  to  give 
articulate  dogmatic  expression  to  what  their  fathers  had 
been  content  to  find  inarticulately  in  the  devotional  rather 


POPULAR   RELIGIOUS   LIFE  157 

than  in  the  intellectual  sphere  of  the  mediaeval  religious 
life. 

Such  was  the  religious  atmosphere  into  which  Luther 
was  born,  and  which  he  breathed  from  his  earliest  days. 
Every  element  seems  to  have  shared  in  creating  and  shaping 
his  religious  history,  and  had  similar  '^jffects  doubtless  on 
his  most  distinguished  and  sympathetic  followers. 


CHAPTEK  VI. 

HUMANISM  AND  REFORMATION.^ 

§  1.   Savonarola. 

When  the  Italian  Humanism  seemed  about  to  become  a 
mere  revival  of  ancient  Paganism,  with  its  accompaniments 
of  a  cynical  sensualism  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  blindest 
trust  in  the  occult  sciences  on  the  other,  a  great  preacher 
arose  in  Florence  who  recalled  men  to  Christianity  and  to 
Christian  virtue. 

Girolamo  Savonarola  was  an  Italian,  a  countryman  of 
Giaocchino  di  Fiore,  of  Arnold  of  Brescia,  of  Francis  of 
Assisi,  of  John  of  Parma,  and,  like  them,  he  believed  him- 
self to  be  favoured  with  visions  apocalyptic  and  other.  He 
belonged  to  a  land  over  which,  all  down  through  the  Middle 
Ages,  had  swept  popular  religious  revivals,  sudden,  con- 
suming, and  transient  as  prairie  fires.     When  a  boy,  he 

^  Sources  :   Casanova  and  Guasti,   Poesie  di  G.  Savonarola  (Florence 
1862)  ;  Scella  di  Frediche  e  Scritti  di  Fra  G.  Savonarola,  con  nuovi  Docu 
menti  intorno  alia  sua  Vita,   by  Villari  and  Casanova  (Florence,   1898) 
Bayonne,  Q^uvrcs  Spirituelles  choisies  de  Jerome  Savonarola  (Paris,   1879) 
The  Workes  of  Sir  Thomas  More  .  .  .  written  by  him  in  the  Englyshe  tonge 
(London,  1557) ;  Erasmus,  Opera  Omnia,  ed.  Le  Clerc  (LeyJen,  1703-1706) 
Nichols,   The  Epistles  of  Erasmus  from,  his  earliest  letters  to  his  ffty-Jirst 
year,  arranged  in  order  of  time  (London,  1901) ;  Enchiridion  Ililitis  Chris- 
tiani    (Cambridge,    1685) ;    The  whole    Familiar    Colloquies    of  Erasmus 
(London,  1877) ;  Sir  Thomas  More,  Utopia  (Temple  Classics  Series). 

Later  Works  :  Villari,  Girolamo  Savonarola,  2  vols.  (Florence,  1887- 
1888  ;  Eng.  trans.,  London,  1890)  ;  Seebohm,  The  Oxford  Reformers:  John 
Colet,  Erasmics,  and  Thomas  More,  etc.  (London,  1887) ;  Drummond, 
Erasm,us,  his  life  and  character  (London,  1873) ;  Woltraann,  Holbein  and 
his  Time  (London,  1872) ;  Fronde,  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus  (London, 
1891);  Amiel,  Un  lihrt  penseur  du  16  silcle:  tWasme  (Paris,  1889); 
Emerton,  Desiderius  Erasmus  of  Rotterdam  (New  York,  1899). 

158 


SAVONAROLA  159 

had  quivered  at  seeing  the  pain  in  the  world  around  him ; 

he  had  shuddered  as  he  passed  the  great  grim  palaces  of 
the  Italian  despots,  where  the  banqueting  hall  was  separated 
from  the  dungeon  by  a  floor  so  thin  that  the  groans  of 
the  prisoners  mingled  with  the  tinkle  of  the  silver  dishes 
and  the  wanton  conversation  of  the  guests.  He  had  been 
destined  by  his  family  for  the  medical  profession,  and  the 
lad  was  set  to  master  the  writings  of  Thomas  Aquinas  and 
the  Arabian  commentaries  on  Aristotle — the  gateway  in 
those  days  to  a  knowledge  of  the  art  of  healing.  The 
Summa  of  the  great  Schoolman  entranced  him,  and  in- 
sensibly drew  him  towards  theology ;  but  outwardly  he  did 
not  rebel  against  the  lot  in  life  marked  out  for  him.  A 
glimpse  of  a  quiet  resting-place  in  this  world  of  pain  and 
evil  had  come  to  him,  but  it  vanished,  swallowed  up  in  the 
universal  gloom,  when  Eoberto  Strozzi  refused  to  permit 
him  to  marry  his  daughter  Laodamia.  There  remained 
only  rest  on  God,  study  of  His  word,  and  such  slight 
solace  as  music  and  sonnet-writing  could  bring.  His  de- 
votion to  Thomas  Aquinas  impelled  him  to  seek  within  a 
Dominican  convent  that  refuge  which  he  passionately  yearned 
for,  from  a  corrupt  world  and  a  corrupt  Church.  There  he 
remained  buried  for  long  years,  reading  and  re-reading  the 
Scriptures,  poring  over  the  Summa,  drinking  in  the  New 
Learning,  almost  unconsciously  creating  for  himself  a  philo- 
sophy which  blended  the  teachings  of  Aquinas  with  the 
Neo-Platonism  of  Marsiglio  Ficino  and  of  the  Academy, 
and  planning  how  he  could  best  represent  the  doctrines  of 
the  Christian  religion  in  harmony  with  the  natural  reason 
of  man. 

I  When  at  last  he  became  a  great  preacher,  able  to  sway 
heart  and  conscience,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  he 
was  mediaeval  to  the  core.  His  doctrinal  teaching  was 
based  firmly  on  the  theology  of  Thomas  Aquinas.  His 
intellectual  conception  of  faith,  his  strong  belief  in  the 
divine  predestination  and  his  way  of  expressing  it,  his 
view  of  Scripture  as  possessing  manifold  meanings,  were 
all  defined  for  him  by  the  great   Dominican   Schoolman. 


160  HUMANISM   AND   KEFORMATION 

He  held  strongly  the  medieeval  idea  that  the  Church  was 
an  external  political  unity,  ruled  by  the  Bishop  of  Kome, 
to  whom  every  human  soul  must  be  subject,  and  whom 
everyone  must  obey  save  only  when  commands  were  issued 
contrary  to  a  plain  statement  of  the  evangelical  law.  He 
expounded  the  fulness  of  and  the  slight  limitations  to  the 
authority  of  the  Pope  exactly  as  Thomas  and  the  great 
Schoolmen  of  the  thirteenth  century  had  done,  though  in 
terms  very  different  from  the  canonists  of  the  Roman 
Curia  at  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Even  his  apprecia- 
tion of  the  Neo-Platonist  side  of  Humanism  could  be 
traced  back  to  mediaeval  authorities ;  for  at  all  times  the 
writings  of  the  pseudo-Dionysius  had  been  a  source  of 
inspiration  to  the  greater  Schoolmen. 

His  scholarship  brought  him  into  relation  with  the 
Humanist  leaders  in  Florence,  the  earnest  tone  of  his 
teaching  and  the  saintliness  of  his  character  attracted 
them,  his  deep  personal  piety  made  them  feel  that  he 
possessed  something  which  they  lacked  ;  while  no  Neo- 
Platonist  could  be  repelled  by  his  claim  to  be  the  recipient 
of  visions  from  on  high. 

The  celebrated  Humanists  of  Florence  became  the 
disciples  of  the  great  preacher.  Marsiglio  Ficino  himself, 
the  head  of  the  Florentine  Academy,  who  kept  one  lamp 
burning  before  the  bust  of  Plato  and  another  before  an 
image  of  the  Virgin,  was  for  a  time  completely  under  his 
spell.  Young  Giovanni  Pico  della  Mirandola's  whole  inner 
life  was  changed  through  Tiis  conversations  with  the  Prior 
of  San  Marco.  He  reformed  his  earlier  careless  haljits. 
He  burnt  five  books  of  wanton  love-songs  which  he  had 
composed  before  his  conversion.^  He  prayed  daily  at  fixed 
hours,  and  he  wrote  earnestly  to  his  nephew  on  the  im- 
portance of  prayer  for  a  godly  life : 

"  *  I  stir  thee  not,'  he  says,  *  to  that  prayer  that  standeth 
in  many  words,  but  to  that  prayer  which  in  the  secret 
chamber  of  the  mind,  in  the  privy-closet  of  the  soul,  with 

*  The  Workes  of  Sir  Thoma.<  More,  Knyght,  sometyme  Lorde  Chancellmu 
of  England y  Wrytten  hy  him  in  the  Englysh  ionge  (London,  1557),  p.  6  0. 


PICO    BELLA    MIRANDOLA  161 

every  affect  speaketh  to  God ;  which  in  the  most  lightsorne 
darkness  of  contemplation  not  only  presenteth  the  mind  to 
the  Father,  but  also  uniteth  it  with  Him  by  unspeakable 
ways  which  only  they  know  who  have  assayed.  Nor  care  I 
how  long  or  how  short  thy  prayer  be ;  but  how  effectual, 
how  ardent,  and  rather  interrupted  and  broken  between  with 
sighs,  than  drawn  on  length  with  a  number  of  words.  .  .  . 
Let  no  day  pass  but  thou  once  at  the  lea.stwise  present 
thyself  to  God  in  prayer,  .  .  .  What  thou  shalt  in  thy 
prayer  ask  of  God,  both  the  Holy  Spirit  which  prayeth  for 
us  and  also  thine  own  necessity  shall  every  hour  put  in  thy 
mind.'"i 

He  studied  the  writings  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  which  con- 
tained the  favourite  theology  of  Savonarola,  and  spoke  of 
the  great  Schoolman  as  a  *'  pillar  of  truth."  ^  He  handed 
over  the  third  part  of  his  estates  to  his  nephew,  and  Hved 
plainly  on  what  remained,  that  he  might  give  largely  in 
charity.*  He  made  Savonarola  his  almoner,  who  on  his 
behalf  gave  alms  to  destitute  people  and  marriage  portions 
to  poor  maidens.*  He  had  frequent  thoughts  of  entering 
the  Dominican  Order,  and 

"  On  a  time  as  he  walked  with  his  nephew,  John  Francis, 
in  a  garden  at  Ferrara,  talking  of  the  love  of  Christ,  he 
broke  out  with  these  words :  '  Nephew,'  said  he, '  this  will  I 
show  thee ;  I  warn  thee  keep  it  secret ;  the  substance  I  have 
left  after  certain  books  of  mine  are  finished,  I  intend  to  give 
out  to  poor  folk,  and,  fencing  myself  with  the  crucifix,  bare- 
foot, walking  about  the  world,  in  every  town  and  castle  I 
purpose  to  preach  of  Christ.'  "  ^ 

It  is  also  recorded  that  he  made  a  practice  of  scourging 
himself ;  especially  "  on  those  days  which  represent  unto  us 
the  Passion  and  Death  that  Christ  suffered  for  our  sake, 
he  beat  and  scourged  his  own  flesh  in  remembrance  of  that 
great  benefit,  and  for  cleansing  his  old  offences."^  But 
above  all  things  he  devoted  himself  to  a  diligent  study  of 

*  Tlie  WorTces  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  Knyght,  sometyme  Lorde  Chmicellowr 
•f  Englavdy  Wrytten  by  him  in  the  Englysh  tonge  (London,  1557),  p.  13  C. 

»  Ibid,  5  A.  »  Ibid.  6  B.  *  Ibid.  6  0. 

•  Ibid.  8  D.  •  Ihid.  6  D. 

II* 


162  HUMANISM    AND    REFORMATION 

the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  commended  the  practice  to  his 
nephew : 

" '  Thou  mayest  do  nothing  more  pleasing  to  God,  nothing 
more  profitable  to  thyself,  than  if  thine  hand  cease  not  day 
and  night  to  turn  and  read  the  volumes  of  Holy  Scripture. 
There  lieth  privily  in  them  a  certain  heavenly  strength, 
quick  and  effectual,  which,  with  a  marvellous  power,  trans- 
formeth  and  change th  the  readers'  mind  into  the  love  of 
God,  if  they  be  clean  and  lowly  entreated.'"^ 

The  great  Platonist  forsook  Plato  for  St.  Paul,  whom  he 
called  the  "  glorious  Apostle."  ^  When  he  died  he  left  his 
lands  to  one  of  the  hospitals  in  Florence,  and  desired  to  be 
buried  in  the  hood  of  the  Dominican  monks  and  within  the 
Convent  of  San  Marco. 

Another  distinguished  member  of  the  Florentine 
A-cademy,  Angelo  Poliziano,  was  also  one  of  Savonarola's 
converts.  We  find  him  exchanging  confidences  with  Pico, 
both  declaring  that  love  and  not  knowledge  is  the  faculty 
by  which  we  learn  to  know  God : 

" '  But  now  behold,  my  well-beloved  Angelo,'  writes  Pico, 
*  what  madness  holdeth  us.  Love  God  (while  we  be  in  this 
body)  we  rather  may,  than  either  know  Him,  or  by  speech 
utter  Him.  In  loving  Him  also  we  more  profit  ourselves ; 
we  labour  less  and  serve  Him  more.  And  yet  had  we  rather 
always  by  knowledge  never  find  that  thing  we  seek,  than  by 
love  possess  that  thing  which  also  without  love  were  in  vain 
found.'"* 

Poliziano,  like  Pico,  had  at  one  time  some  thoughts  of 
joining  the  Dominican  Order.  He  too  was  buried  at  his 
own  request  in  the  cowl  of  the  Dominican  monk  in  the 
Convent  of  San  Marco. 

Lorenzo  de  Medici,  who  during  his  life  had  made  many 
attempts  to  win  the  support  of  Savonarola,  and  had  always 
been  repulsed,  could  not  die  without  entreating  the  great 
preacher  to  visit  him  on  his  deathbed  and  grant  him 
absolution. 

*  The  Workea  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  Knyght,  sometyme  Lorde  Chancellour 
nf  England,  Wrytten  by  him  in  the  Englysh  tonge  (London,  1557),  13  F. 
« Ibid,  12  D.  » Ibid.  7  D. 


JOHN    COLET  163 

Italian  Humanism  was  for  the  moment  won  over  to 
Christianity  by  the  Prior  of  San  Marco.  Had  the  poets 
and  the  scholars,  the  politicians  and  the  ecclesiastics,  the 
State  and  the  Church,  not  been  so  hopelessly  corrupt,  there 
might  have  been  a  great  renovation  of  mankind,  under  the 
leadership  of  men  who  had  no  desire  to  break  the  political 
unity  of  the  mediaeval  Church.  For  it  can  scarcely  be  too 
strongly  insisted  that  Savonarola  was  no  Eeformation  leader 
in  the  more  limited  sense  of  the  phrase.  The  movement, 
he  headed  has  much  more  affinity  with  the  crude  "revival 
of  religion  in  Germany  in  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
than  with  the  Eeformation  itself ;  and  the  aim  of  the  re- 
organisation of  the  Tuscan  congregation  of  the  Dominicans 
under  Savonarola  has  an  almost  exact  parallel  in  the 
creation  of  the  congregation  of  the  Angus tinian  Eremites 
under  Andreas  Proles  and  Johann  Staupitz.  The  whole 
Italian  movement,  as  might  be  expected,  was  conducted  by 
men  of  greater  intelligence  and  refinement.  It  had  there- 
fore less  sympathy  than  the  German  with  pilgrimages, 
relics,  the  niceties  of  ceremonial  worship,  and  the  cult  of 
the  vulgarly  miraculous ;  but  it  was  not  the  less  mediaeval 
on  these  accounts.  It  was  the  death  rather  than  the  life 
and  lifework  of  Savonarola  that  was  destined  to  have  direct 
effect  on  the  Eeformation  soon  to  come  beyond  the  Alps ; 
for  his  martyrdom  was  a  crowning  evidence  of  the  im- 
possibility of  reforming  the  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages 
apart  from  the  shock  of  a  great  convulsion.  "  Luther 
himself,"  says  Professor  Villari,  "  could  scarcely  have  been 
so  successful  in  inaugurating  his  Eeform,  had  not  the 
sacrifice  of  Savonarola  given  a  final  proof  that  it  was 
hopeless  to  hope  in  the  purification  of  Kome."^ 

§  2.  John  Golet 

While  Savonarola  was  at  the  height  of  his  influence  in 
Florence,  there  chanced  to  be  in  Italy  a  young  Englishman, 

^  Life  and  Times  of  Oirolamo  Savonarola,  p.  771  (Eng.  trans.,  London, 
1897), 


1G4  HUMANISM    AND   REFORMATION 

John  Colet,  son  of  a  wealthy  London  merchant  who  had 
been  several  times  Lord  Mayor.  He  had  gone  there,  we 
may  presume,  like  his  countrymen  Grocyn  and  Linacre,  to 
make  himself  acquainted  with  the  New  Learning  at  its 
fountainhead.  There  is  no  proof  that  he  went  to  Florence 
or  ever  saw  the  great  Italian  preacher ;  but  no  stranger 
could  have  visited  Northern  Italy  in  1495  without  hearing 
much  of  him  and  of  Ms  work.  Colet's  whole  future  life 
in  England  bears  evidence  that  he  did  receive  a  new  impulse 
while  he  was  in  Italy,  and  that  of  such  a  kind  as  could 
have  come  only  from  Savonarola.  What  Erasmus  tells  us 
of  his  sojourn  there  amply  confirms  this.  Colet  gave  him- 
self up  to  the  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  he  read  care- 
fully those  theologians  of  the  ancient  Church  specially 
acceptable  to  the  Neo-Platonist  Christian  Humanists ;  he 
studied  the  pseudo-Dionysius,  Origen,  and  Jerome.  What 
is  more  remarkable  still  in  a  foreign  Humanist  come  to 
study  in  Italy,  he  read  diligently  such  English  classics  as 
he  could  find  in  order  to  prepare  himself  for  the  work  of 
preaching  when  he  returned  to  England.  The  words  of 
Erasmus  imply  that  the  impulse  to  do  all  this  came  to  him 
when  he  was  in  Italy,  and  there  was  no  one  to  impart  it 
to  him  but  the  great  Florentine. 

When  Colet  returned  to  England  in  1496,  he  began  to 
lecture  at  Oxford  on  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  His  method 
of  exposition,  familiar  enough  after  Calvin  had  introduced 
it  into  the  Eeformed  Church,  was  then  absolutely  new,  and 
proves  that  he  was  an  original  and  independent  thinker. 
His  aim  was  to  find  out  the  personal  message  which  the 
writer  (St.  Paul)  had  sent  to  the  Christians  at  Kcme ;  and 
this  led  him  to  seek  for  every  trace  which  revealed  the 
personality  of  the  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles.  It  was  equally 
imperative  to  know  what  were  the  surroundings  of  the 
men  to  whom  the  Epistle  was  addressed,  and  Colet  studied 
Suetonius  to  find  some  indications  of  the  environment  of 
the  Koman  Christians.  He  had  thus  completely  freed 
himself  from  the  Scholastic  habit  of  using  the  Scriptures 
as  a  mere  collection  of  isolated  texts  to  be  employed  in 


JOHN   COLET  165 

proving  doctrines  or  moral  rules  constructed  or  imposed  by 
the  Church,  and  it  is  therefore  not  surprising  to  find  that 
he  never  lards  his  expositions  with  quotations  from  the 
Fathers.  It  is  a  still  greater  proof  of  his  daring  that  he 
set  aside  the  allegorising  methods  of  the  Schoolmen, — 
methods  abundantly  used  by  Savonarola, — and  that  he  did 
so  in  spite  of  his  devotion  to  the  writings  of  the  pseudo- 
Dionysius.  He  was  the  first  to  apply  the  critical  methods 
of  the  New  Learning  to  discover  the  exact  meaning  of  the 
books  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  His  treatment  of  the  Scrip- 
tures shows  that  however  he  may  have  been  influenced  by 
Savonarola  and  by  the  Christian  Humanists  of  Italy,  he 
had  advanced  far  beyond  them,  and  had  seen,  what  no 
mediaeval  theologian  had  been  able  to  perceive,  that  the 
Bible  is  a  personal  and  not  a  dogmatic  revelation.  They 
were  mediaeval :  he  belongs  to  the  Eeformation  circle  of 
thinkers.  Luther,  Calvin,  and  Colet,  whatever  else  separates 
them,  have  this  one  deeply  important  thought  in  common. 
Further,  Colet  discarded  the  mediaeval  conception  of  a 
mechanical  inspiration  of  the  text  of  Scripture,  in  this  also 
agreeing  with  Luther  and  Calvin.  The  inspiration  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  was  something  mysterious  to  him.  "  The 
Spirit  seemed  to  him  by  reason  of  its  majesty  to  have  a 
peculiar  method  of  its  own,  singularly,  absolutely  free, 
blowing  where  it  lists,  making  prophets  of  whom  it  will, 
yet  so  that  the  spirit  of  the  prophets  is  subject  to  the 
prophets."  ^ 

Colet  saw  clearly,  and  denounced  the  abounding  evils 
which  were  ruining  the  Church  of  his  day.  The  Convoca- 
tion of   the   English   Church   never   listened   to  a   bolder 

'  Seebohm,  The  Oxford  Reformers :  John  Colet,  Erasinus,  and  Thoma.i 
More;  being  a  history  of  their  fellow -work,  2nd  ed.  p.  125  (London,  1869). 
Mr.  Seebohm  seems  to  think  that  the  Reformers  chmg  to  the  mediaeval 
conception  of  the  inspiration  of  Scripture.  Calvin  held  the  same  ideas  as 
Colet,  and  expressed  them  in  the  same  way.  Cf.  his  comments  on  Matt. 
xxvii.  9:  "Quomodo  Hieremiae  nomen  obrepserit,  me  nescire  fateor,  nee 
anxie  Idboro :  certe  Hieremiae  nomen  errore  positum  esse  pro  Zacharia,  res 
ipsa  ostendit"  ;  and  his  comment  on  Acts  vii.  16  :  ''quare  hie  locus  corri- 
gendus  est." 


166  HUMANISM    AND    REFORMATION 

sermon  than  that  preached  to  them  by  the  Dean  of  St. 
Paul's  in  1 5 1 2 — the  same  year  that  Luther  addressed  an 
assembly  df'titfergy  at  Leitzkau.  The  two  addresses  should 
be  compared.  The  same  fundamental  thought  is  contained 
in  both — that  every  true  reformation  must  begin  with  the 
individual  man.  Colet  declared  that  reform  must  begin 
with  the  bishops,  and  that  once  begun  it  would  spread  to 
the  clergy  and  thence  to  the  laity ;  "  for  the  body  follows 
the  soul ;  and  as  are  the  rulers  in  a  State,  such  will  the 
people  be."  He  urged  that  what  was  wanted  was  the  en- 
forcement of  ecclesiastical  laws  which  were  already  in 
existence.  Ignorant  and  wicked  men  were  admitted  to 
holy  orders,  and  there  were  laws  prohibiting  this.  Simony 
was  creeping  "  like  a  cancer  through  the  minds  of  priests, 
so  that  most  are  not  ashamed  in  these  days  to  get  for 
themselves  great  dignities  by  petitions  and  suits  at  court, 
rewards  and  promises " ;  and  yet  strict  laws  against  the 
evil  were  in  existence.  He  proceeded  to  enumerate  the 
other  flagrant  abuses — the  non -residence  of  clergy,  the 
worldly  pursuits  and  indulgences  of  the  clergy ;  the  scan- 
dals and  vices  of  the  ecclesiastical  law-courts;  the  infre- 
qency  of  provincial  councils  to  discuss  and  remedy  existing 
evils ;  the  wasting  of  the  patrimony  of  the  Church  on 
sumptuous  buildings,  on  banquets,  on  enriching  kinsfolk,  or 
on  keeping  hounds.  The  Church  had  laws  against  all  these 
abuses,  but  they  were  not  enforced,  and  could  not  be  until 
the  bishops  amended  their  ways.  His  scheme  of  reform 
was  to  put  in  operation  the  existing  regulations  of  Canon 
Law.  "  The  diseases  which  are  now  in  the  Church  were 
the  same  in  former  ages,  and  there  is  no  evil  for  which 
the  holy  fathers  did  not  provide  excellent  remedies ;  there 
are  no  crimes  in  prohibition  of  which  there  are  not  laws 
in  the  body  of  Canon  Law."  Such  was  his  definite  idea 
of  reform  in  this  famous  Convocation  sermon. 

But  he  had  wider  views.  He  desired  the  diffusion  of 
a  sound  Christian  education,  and  did  the  best  that  could 
be  done  by  one  man  to  promote  it,  by  spending  his  private 
fortune  in  founding  St.  Paul's  school,  which  he  character- 


JOHN    COLET  167 

istically  left  in  charge  of  a  body  of  laymen.  He  longed  to 
eee  a  widespread  preaching  in  the  vernacular,  and  believed 
that  the  bishops  should  show  an  example  in  this  clerical 
duty.  It  is  probable  that  he  wished  the  whole  service  to 
be  in  the  vernacular,  for  it  was  made  a  charge  against  him 
that  he  taught  his  congregation  to  repeat  the  Lord's  Prayer 
in  English.  Besides,  he  had  clearly  grasped  the  thought, 
too  often  forgotten  by  theologians  of  all  schools,  that  the 
spiritual  facts  and  forces  which  lie  at  the  roots  of  the 
Christian  life  are  one  thing,  and  the  intellectual  conceptions 
which  men  make  to  explain  these  facts  and  forces  are 
another,  and  a  much  less  important  thing;  that  men  are 
able  to  be  Christians  and  to  live  the  Christian  life  because 
of  the  former  and  not  because  of  the  latter.  He  saw  that, 
while  dogma  has  its  place,  it  is  at  best  the  alliance  of  an 
immortal  with  a  mortal,  the  union  between  that  which  is 
unchangeably  divine  and  the  fashions  of  human  thought 
which  change  from  one  age  to  another.  For  this  reason 
he  thought  little  of  the  Scholastic  Theology  of  his  days,  with 
its  forty-three  propositions  about  the  nature  of  God  and  its 
forty-five  about  the  nature  of  man  before  and  after  the 
Fall,  each  of  which  had  to  be  assented  to  at  the  risk  of  a 
charge  of  heresy.  "  Why  do  you  extol  to  me  such  a  man 
as  Aquinas  ?  If  he  had  not  been  so  very  arrogant,  indeed, 
he  would  not  surely  so  rashly  and  proudly  have  taken 
upon  himself  to  define  all  things.  And  unless  his  spirit 
had  been  somewhat  worldly,  he  would  not  surely  have 
corrupted  the  whole  teaching  of  Christ  by  mixing  it  with 
his  profane  philosophy."  The  Scholastic  Theology  might 
have  been  scientific  in  the  thirteenth  century,  but  the 
"  scientific  "  is  the  human  and  changing  element  in  dogma, 
and  the  old  theology  had  become  clearly  unscientific  in  the 
sixteenth.  Therefore  he  was  accustomed  to  advise  young 
theological  students  to  keep  to  the  Bible  and  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  and  let  divines,  if  they  liked,  dispute  about  the  rest ; 
and  he  taught  Erasmus  to  look  askance  at  Luther's  recon- 
struction of  the  Augustinian  theology. 

But  no  thinking  man,  however  he  may  flout  at  philo- 


168  HUMANISM    AND    REFORMATION 

SDpliy  and  dogma,  can  do  without  either  ;  and  Colet  was 
no  exception  to  the  general  rule.  He  has  placed  on  record 
his  detestation  of  Aquinas  and  his  dislike  of  Augustine, 
and  we  may  perhaps  see  in  this  a  lack  of  sympathy  with 
a  prominent  characteristic  of  the  theology  of  Latin  Chris- 
tianity from  Tertullian  to  Aquinas  and  Occam,  to  say 
nothing  of  developments  since  the  Eeformation.  The  great 
men  who  built  up  the  Western  Church  were  almost  all 
trained  Eoman  lawyers.  Tertullian,  Cyprian,  Augustine, 
Gregory  the  Great  (whose  writings  form  the  bridge  between 
the  Latin  Fathers  and  the  Schoolmen)  were  all  men  whose 
early  training  had  been  that  of  a  Eoman  lawyer, — a  train- 
ing which  moulded  and  shaped  all  their  thinking,  whether 
theological  or  ecclesiastical.  They  instinctively  regarded 
all  questions  as  a  great  Eoman  lawyer  would.  They  had 
the  lawyer's  craving  for  exact  definitions.  They  had  the 
lawyer's  idea  that  the  primary  duty  laid  upon  them  was 
to  enforce  obedience  to  authority,  whether  that  authority 
expressed  itself  in  external  institutions  or  in  the  precise 
definitions  of  the  correct  ways  of  thinking  about  spiritual 
truths.  No  branch  of  Western  Christendom  has  been  able 
to  free  itself  from  the  spell  cast  upon  it  by  these  Eoman 
lawyers  of  the  early  centuries  of  the  Christian  Church. 

If  the  ideas  of  Christian  Eoman  lawyers,  filtering 
slowly  down  through  the  centuries,  had  made  the  Bishops 
of  Eome  dream  that  they  were  the  successors  of  Augustus, 
at  once  Emperor  and  Pontifex  Maximus,  master  of  the 
bodies  and  of  the  souls  of  mankind,  they  had  also  inspired 
the  theologians  of  the  Mediaeval  Church  with  the  concep- 
tion of  an  intellectual  imperialism,  where  a  system  of 
Christian  thought,  expressed  with  legal  precision,  could 
bind  into  a  comprehensive  unity  the  active  intelligence  of 
mankind.  Dogmas  thus  expressed  can  become  the  instru- 
ments of  a  tyranny  much  more  penetrating  than  that  of 
an  institution,  and  so  Colet  found.  In  his  revolt  he  turned 
from  the  Latins  to  the  Greeks,  and  to  that  thinker  who 
was  furthest  removed  from  the  legal  precision  of  statement 
which  was  characteristic  of  Western  theology. 


JOHN   COLET  169 

It  is  probable  that  his  intercourse  with  the  Christian 
HumaDists  of  Italy,  and  his  introduction  to  Platonists  and 
to  Neo-Platonism,  made  him  turn  to  the  writings  of  the 
pseudo-Dionysius ;  but  it  is  certain  that  he  believed  at 
first  that  the  author  of  these  quaint  mystical  tracts  was 
the  Dionysius  who  was  one  of  the  converts  of  St.  Paul  at 
Athens,  and  that  these  writings  embodied  much  of  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  and  took  the  reader  back 
to  the  first  generation  of  the  Christian  Church.  After  he 
had  learned  from  Grocyn  that  the  author  of  the  Celestial 
and  the  Terrestrial  Hierarchies  could  not  have  been  the 
convert  of  St.  Paul,  and  that  the  writings  could  not  be 
earlier  than  the  sixth  century,  he  still  regarded  them  as 
evidence  of  the  way  in  which  a  Christian  philosopher  could 
express  the  thoughts  which  were  current  in  Christianity 
one  thousand  years  before  Colet's  time.  The  writings 
could  be  used  as  a  touchstone  to  test  usages  and  opinions 
prevalent  at  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages,  when  men  were 
still  subject  to  the  domination  of  the  Scholastic  Theology, 
and  as  justification  for  rejecting  them. 

They  taught  him  two  things  which  he  was  very  willing 
to  learn :  that  the  human  mind,  however  it  may  be  able 
to  feel  after  God,  can  never  comprehend  Him,  nor  imprison 
His  character  and  attributes  in  propositions — stereotyped 
aspects  of  thoughts — which  can  be  fitted  into  syllogisms ; 
and  that  such  things  as  hierarchy  and  sacraments  are  to 
be  prized  not  because  they  are  in  themselves  the  active 
sources  and  centres  of  mysterious  powers,  but  because  they 
faintly  symbolise  the  spiritual  forces  by  which  God  works 
for  the  salvation  of  His  people.  Colet  applied  to  the 
study  of  the  writings  of  the  pseudo-Dionysius  a  mind 
saturated  with  simple  Christian  truth  gained  from  a  study 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  especially  of  the  Epistles  of 
St.  Paul ;  and  the  very  luxuriance  of  imagination  and 
bewildering  confusion  of  symbolism  in  these  writings,  their 
elusiveness  as  opposed  to  the  precision  of  Thomas  Aquinas 
or  of  John  Duns  the  Scot,  enabled  him  the  more  easily  to 
find  in  them  the  germs  of  his  own  more  definite  opinions. 


170  HUMANISM    AND    REFORMATION 

When  one  studios  tlie  abstracts  of  the  Rier archies'^ — which 
Colet  wrote  out  from  memory — with  the  actual  text  of  the 
books  themselves,  it  is  scarcely  surprising  to  find  how  much 
there  is  of  Colet  and  how  little  of  Dionysius.^ 

While  it  is  impossible  to  say  how  far  Colet,  and  the 
Christian  Humanists  who  agreed  with  him,  would  have 
welcomed  the  principles  of  a  Eeformation  yet  to  come,  it 
can  be  affirmed  that  he  held  the  same  views  on  two  very 
important  points.  He  did  not  believe  in  a  priesthood  in 
the  mediaeval  nor  in  the  modern  Eoman  sense  of  the  word, 
and  his  theory  of  the  efficacy  and  meaning  of  the  sacra- 
ments of  the  Christian  Church  was  essentially  Protestant. 

According  to  Colet,  there  was  no  such  thing  as  a  media- 
torial priesthood  whose  essential  function  it  was  to  approach 
God  on  men's  behalf  and  present  their  offerings  to  Him. 
The  duty  of  the  Christian  priesthood  was  ministerial ;  it 
was  to  declare  the  love  and  mercy  of  God  to  their  fellow- 
men,  and  to  strive  for  the  purification,  illumination,  and 
salvation  of  mankind  by  constant  preaching  of  the  truth 
and  diffusion  of  gospel  light,  even  as  Christ  strove.  He 
did  not  believe  that  priests  had  received  from  God  the 
power  of  absolving  from  sins.  "  It  must  be  heedfuUy 
remarked,"  he  says,  "lest  bishops  be  presumptuous,  that 
it  is  not  the  part  of  men  to  loose  the  bonds  of  sins ;  nor 
does  the  power  belong  to  them  of  loosing  or  binding  any- 
thing,"— the  truth  Luther  set  forth  in  his  Theses  against 
Indulgences. 

*  Colet  s  abstracts  of  the  Celestial  and  of  the  Terrestrial  Hierarchies  have 
been  published  by  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Lupton  (London,  1869),  from  the  MS.  at 
St.  Paul's  School.  Mr.  Lupton  has  also  published  Colet's  treatise  On  the 
Sacramenls  of  the  Church  (London,  1867).  The  best  edition  of  the  works  of 
the  pseudo-Dionysius  is  that  of  Baltluisar  Corderius,  S.J.,  published  at 
Venice  in  1755.  The  actual  writings  of  the  pseudo-Dionysius  are  not 
extensive ;  the  editor  has  added  translations,  notes,  scholia,  commentaries, 
etc.,  and  his  folio  edition  contains  more  than  one  thousand  pages. 

2  **  The  radical  conception  is  most  often  due  to  Dionysius  ;  the  passages 
represent  the  effervescence  produced  by  the  Dionysian  conceptions  in 
Colet's  mind.  .  .  .  The  fire  was  indeed  very  much  Colet's.  I  find  passages 
which  burn  in  Colet's  abstract,  freeze  in  the  original." — Seebohm,  The 
Oxford  Heformers,  p.  76  (2nd  ed.,  London,  1869).  My  knowledge  of  Colet's 
sermons  oomes  from  the  extracts  in  Mr.  Seebohm's  work. 


JOHN   COLET  171 

)  Colet  is  even  more  decided  in  his  repudiation  of 
the  sacramental  theories  of  the  mediaeval  Church.  The 
Eucharist  is  not  a  sacrifice,  but  a  commemoration  of  the 
d©ath  of  our  Lord,  and  a  symbol  of  the  union  and  com- 
munion which  believers  have  with  Him,  and  with  their 
fellow-men  through  Him.  Baptism  is  a  ceremony  which 
symbolises  the  believer's  change  of  heart  and  his  vow  of 
service  to  his  Master,  and  signifies  "  the  more  excellent 
baptism  of  the  inner  man";  and  the  duty  of  sponsors 
is  to  train  children  in  the  knowledge  and  fear  of 
God.i 

We  are  told  that  the  Lollards  delighted  in  Colet's 
preaching;  that  they  advised  each  other  to  go  to  hear 
him ;  and  that  attendance  at  the  Dean's  sermons  was 
actually  made  a  charge  against  them.  Colet  was  no  Lol- 
lard himself;  indeed,  he  seems  to  have  once  sat  among 
ecclesiastical  judges  who  condemned  Lollards  to  death ;  * 
but  the  preacher  who  taught  that  tithes  were  voluntary 
offerings,  who  denounced  the  evil  lives  of  the  monks  and 
the  secular  clergy ;  who  hated  war,  and  did  not  scruple  to 
say  so ;  whose  sermons  were  full  of  simple  Bible  instruction, 
must  have  recalled  many  memories  of  the  old  Lollard 
doctrines.  For  Lollardy  had  never  died  out  in  England : 
it  was  active  in  Colet's  days,  leavening  the  country  for  the 
Reformation  which  was  to  come. 

Nor  should  it  be  forgotten,  in  measuring  the  influence 
of  Colet  on  the  coming  Reformation,  that  WiUiam  Tyndale 
was  one  of  his  favourite  pupils,  and  that  he  persuaded 
Erasmus  to  turn  from  purely  classical  studies  to  edit  the 
New  Testament  and  the  early  Christian  Fathers. 


^  Cf.  Mr.  Lupton's  translation  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Hierarchies,  c.  ii.  If 
it  be  peiToissible  to  adduce  evidence  from  the  Utopia  of  Sir  Thomas  More, 
the  anti-sacerdotal  views  of  the  Oxford  Reformers  went  much  further.  In 
Utopia  confession  was  made  to  the  head  of  the  family  and  not  to  the 
priests  ;  women  could  be  priests ;  divorce  from  bed  and  board  was  per- 
mitted. Cf.  the  Temple  Classics  edition,  p.  116  (divorce),  p.  148  (women- 
priests),  p.  152  (confession). 

2  Seebohm,  The  Oxford  Reformers,  p.  221  (2nd  ed.  1869). 


172  HUMANISM    AND    REFORMATION 

§  3.  Erasmus. 

Erasmus,  as  has  often  been  said,  was  a  "  man  by  him- 
self"; yet  be  may  be  regarded  as  representing  one,  and 
perhaps  the  most  frequent,  type  of  Christian  Humanism. 
His  character  will  always  be  matter  of  controversy ;  and 
his  motives  may,  without  unfairness,  be  represented  in  an 
unfavourable  light, —  a  "  great  scholar  but  a  petty-minded 
man,"  is  a  verdict  for  which  there  is  abundant  evidence. 
Such  was  the  final  judgment  of  his  contemporaries,  mainly 
because  he  refused  to  take  a  definite  side  in  the  age  when 
the  greatest  controversy  which  has  convulsed  Western 
Europe  since  the  downfall  of  the  old  Empire  seemed  to 
call  on  every  man  to  range  himself  with  one  party  or 
other.  Our  modern  judgment  must  rest  on  a  different 
basis.  In  calmer  days,  when  the  din  of  battle  has 
almost  died  away,  it  is  possible  to  recognise  that  to  refuse 
to  be  a  partisan  may  indicate  greatness  instead  of  littleness 
of  soul,  a  keener  vision,  and  a  calmer  courage.  We  cannot 
judge  the  man  as  hastily  as  his  contemporaries  did.  Still 
there  is  evidence  enough  and  to  spare  to  back  their  verdict. 
Every  biographer  has  admitted  that  it  is  hopeless  to  look 
for  truth  in  his  voluminous  correspondence.  His  feelings, 
hopes,  intentions,  and  actual  circumstances  are  described  to 
different  correspondents  at  the  same  time  in  utterly  different 
ways.  He  was  always  writing  for  effect,  and  often  for 
effect  of  a  rather  sordid  kind.  He  seldom  gave  a  definite 
opinion  on  any  important  question  without  attempting  to 
quahfy  it  in  such  a  manner  that  he  might  be  able,  if  need 
arose,  to  deny  that  he  had  given  it.  No  man  knew  better 
how  to  use  "  if  "  and  "  but "  so  as  to  shelter  himself  from  all 
responsibility.  He  had  the  ingenuity  of  the  cuttle-fish  to 
conceal  himself  and  his  real  opinions,  and  it  was  commonly 
used  to  protect  his  own  skin.  All  this  may  be  admitted ; 
it  can  scarcely  be  denied. 

Yet  from  his  first  visit  to  England  (1498)  down  to  his 
practical  refusal  of  a  Cardinal's  Hat  from  Pope  Adrian  vi., 
on  condition  that  he  would  reside  at  Rome  and  assist  in 


ERASMUS  173 

I  fighting  the  Reformation,  Erasmus  had  his  own  conception 
^of  what  a  reformation  of  Christianity  really  meant,  and 
what  dhare  in  it  it  was  possible  for  him  to  take.  It  must 
l)e  admitted  that  he  held  to  this  idea  and  kept  to  the  path 
he  had  marked  out  for  himself  with  a  tenacity  of  purpose 
which  did  him  honour.  It  was  by  no  means  always 
that  of  personal  safety,  still  less  the  road  to  personal 
aggrandisement.  It  led  him  in  the  end  where  he  had 
never  expected  to  stand.  It  made  him  a  man  despised 
by  both  sides  in  the  great  controversy ;  it  left  him  abso- 
lutely alone,  friendless,  and  without  influence.  He  fre- 
quently used  very  contemptible  means  to  ward  off  attempts 
to  make  him  diverge  to  the  right  or  left ;  he  abandoned 
many  of  his  earlier  principles,  or  so  modified  them  that 
they  were  no  longer  recognisable.  But  he  was  always  true 
to  his  own  idea  of  a  reformation  and  of  his  life-work  as  a 
reformer. 

I  Erasmus  was  firmly  convinced  that  Christianity  was 
above  all  things  something  practical.  It  had  to  do  with 
the  ordinary  life  of  mankind.  It  meant  love,  humility, 
purity,  reverence, — every  virtue  which  the  Saviour  had 
made  manifest  in  His  life  on  earth.  This  early  "  Christian 
philosophy  "  had  been  buried  out  of  sight  under  a  Scholastic 
Theology  full  of  sophistical  subtleties,  and  had  been  lost  in 
the  mingled  Judaism  and  Paganism  of  the  popular  rehgious 
life,  with  its  weary  ceremonies  and  barbarous  usages.  A 
true  reformation,  he  believed,  was  the  moral  renovation  of 
mankind,  and  the  one  need  of  the  age  was  to  return  to 
that  earlier  purer  religion  based  on  a  real  inward  reverence 
for  and  imitation  of  Christ.  The  man  of  letters,  like  him- 
self, he  conceived  could  play  the  part  of  a  reformer,  and 
that  manfully,  in  two  ways.  He  could  try,  by  the  use  of 
wit  and  satire,  to  make  contemptible  the  follies  of  the 
Schoolmen  and  the  vulgar  travesty  of  religion  which  was  in 
vogue  among  the  people.  He  could  also  bring  before  the 
eyes  of  all  men  that  earlier  and  purer  religion  which  was 
true  Cliristianity.  He  could  edit  the  New  Testament,  and 
enable  men  to  read  the  very  words  which  Jesus  spoke  and 


174  HUMANISM    AND   REFORMATION 

Paul  preached,  make  them  see  the  deeds  of  Jesus  and  hear 
the  apostolic  explanations  of  their  meaning.  He  could 
say: 

"  Only  be  teachable,  and  you  have  already  made  much 
way  in  this  (the  Christian)  Philosophy.  It  supplies  a  spirit 
for  a  teacher,  imparted  to  none  more  readily  than  to  the 
simple-minded.  Other  philosophies,  by  the  very  difficulty 
of  their  precepts,  are  removed  out  of  the  range  of  most 
minds.  No  age,  no  sex,  no  condition  of  life  is  exchided  from 
this.  The  sun  itself  is  not  more  common  and  open  to  all 
than  the  teaching  of  Christ.  For  I  utterly  dissent  from 
those  who  are  unwilling  that  the  Sacred  Scriptures  should  be 
read  by  the  unlearned  translated  into  their  vulgar  tongue, 
as  though  Christ  had  taught  such  subtleties  that  they  can 
scarcely  be  understood  even  by  a  few  theologians,  or  as 
though  the  strength  of  the  Christian  religion  consisted  in 
men's  ignorance  of  it.  The  mysteries  of  kings  it  may  be 
safer  to  conceal,  but  Christ  wished  His  mysteries  to  be 
published  as  openly  as  possible.  I  wish  that  even  the 
weakest  woman  should  read  the  Gospel — should  read  the 
Epistles  of  Paul.  And  I  wish  these  were  translated  into  all 
languages,  so  that  they  might  be  read  and  understood,  not 
only  by  Scots  and  Irishmen,  but  also  by  Turks  and  Saracens. 
To  make  them  understood  is  surely  the  first  step.  It  may 
be  that  they  might  be  ridiculed  by  many,  but  some  would 
)  take  them  to  heart.  I  long  that  the  husbandman  should 
'1  sing  portions  of  them  to  himself  as  he  follows  the  plough, 
j  that  the  weaver  should  hum  them  to  the  tune  of  his  shuttle, 
(  that  the  traveller  should  beguile  with  their  stories  the 
tedium  of  his  journey."^ 

The  scholar  who  became  a  reformer  could  further  make 
plain,  by  editing  and  publishing  the  writings  of  the  earlier 
Christian  Fathers,  what  the  oldest  Christian  Theology  had 
been  before  the  Schoolmen  spoiled  it. 

The  conception  that  a  reformation  of  Christianity  was 
mainly  a  renovation  of  morals,  enabled  the  Christian 
Humanist  to  keep  true  to  the  Eenaissance  idea  that  the 
writers  of  classical  antiquity  were  to  be  used  to  aid  the 
work  of  ameliorating  the  lot  of  mankind.  The  Florentine 
circle  spoke  of  the  inspiration  of  Homer,  of  Plato,  and  of 

*  Erasmus,  Oj^era  Oinnia  (Leyden,  1703-1706),  v.  140. 


ERASMUS  175 

Cicero,  and  saw  them  labouring  as  our  Lord  had  done  to 
teach  men  how  to  live  better  lives.  Pico  and  Eeuchlin 
had  gone  further  afield,  and  had  found  illuminating  anti- 
cipations of  Christianity,  in  this  sense  and  in  others,  amoDg 
the  Hebrews,  the  Egyptians,  and  perhaps  the  Brahmins. 
Erasmus  was  too  clear-sighted  to  be  drawn  into  any 
alliance  with  Oriental  mysticism  or  cabalistic  speculations ; 
but  he  insisted  on  the  aid  which  would  come  from  the 
Christian  reformer  making  full  use  of  the  ethical  teaching 
of  the  wise  men  of  Greece  and  Eome  in  his  attempt  to 
produce  a  moral  renovation  in  the  lives  of  his  fellows. 
Socrates  and  Cicero,  each  in  his  own  day  and  within  his 
own  sphere,  had  striven  for  the  same  moral  renovation 
that  Christianity  promised,  and,  in  this  sense  at  least,  might 
be  called  Christians  before  Christ.  So  persuaded  was 
Erasmus  of  their  affinity  with  the  true  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity, that  he  declared  that  Cicero  had  as  much  right  to  a 
high  place  in  heaven  as  many  a  Christian  saint,  and  that 
when  he  thought  of  the  Athenian  martyr  he  could  scarcely 
refrain  from  saying,  Sancte  Socrates^  Ora  'pro  nobis. 

It  must  be  remembered  also  that  Erasmus  had  a 
genuine  and  noble  horror  of  war,  which  was  by  no  means 
the  mere  shrinking  of  a  man  whose  nerves  were  always 
quivering.  He  preached  peace  as  boldly  and  in  as  dis- 
interested a  fashion  as  did  his  friend  John  Colet.  He 
could  not  bear  the  thought  of  a  religious  war.  This  must 
not  be  forgotten  in  any  estimate  of  his  conduct  and  of  his 
relation  to  the  Eeformation.  No  man,  not  even  Luther, 
scattered  the  seeds  of  revolution  with  a  more  reckless  hand, 
and  yet  a  thorough  and  steadfast  dislike  to  all  movements 
which  could  be  called  revolutionary  was  one  of  the  most 
abiding  elements  in  his  character.  He  hated  what  he 
called  the  "tumult."  He  had  an  honest  belief  that  all 
public  evils  in  State  and  Church  must  be  endured  until 
they  dissolve  away  quietly  under  the  influence  of  sarcasm 
and  common  sense,  or  until  they  are  removed  by  the  action 
of  the  responsible  authorities.  He  was  clear-sighted 
enough   to  see  that  an  open   and   avowed  attack  on  the 


176  HUMANISM   AND   REFORMATION 

papal  supremacy,  or  on  any  of  the  more  cherished  doctrines 
and  usages  of  the  mediaeval  Church,  must  end  in  strife  and 
in  bloodshed,  and  he  therefore  honestly  believed  that  no 
such  attack  ought  to  be  made. 

When  all  these  things  are  kept  in  view,  it  is  possible 
to  see  what  conception  Erasmus  had  about  his  work  as  a 
reformer,  with  its  possibilities  and  its  limitations.  He 
adhered  to  it  tenaciously  all  his  life.  He  held  it  in  the 
days  of  his  earlier  comparative  obscurity.  He  maintained 
it  when  he  had  been  enthroned  as  the  prince  of  the  realm 
of  learning.  He  clung  to  it  in  his  discredited  old  age. 
No  one  can  justify  the  means  he  sometimes  took  to  prevent 
being  drawn  from  the  path  he  had  marked  out  for  himself ; 
but  there  is  something  to  be  said  for  the  man  who,  through 
good  report  and  evil,  stuck  resolutely  to  his  view  of  what  a 
reformation  ought  to  be,  and  what  were  the  functions  of  a 
man  of  letters  who  felt  himself  called  to  be  a  reformer. 
Had  Luther  been  gifted  with  that  keen  sense  of  prevision 
with  which  Erasmus  was  so  fatally  endowed,  would  he  have 
stood  forward  to  attack  Indulgences  in  the  way  he  did  ? 
It  is  probable  that  it  would  have  made  no  difference  in  his 
action ;  but  he  did  not  think  so  himself.  He  said  once, 
"  No  good  work  comes  about  by  our  own  wisdom ;  it 
begins  in  dire  necessity.  I  was  forced  into  mine ;  but  had 
I  known  then  what  I  know  now,  ten  wild  horses  would  not 
have  drawn  me  into  it."  The  man  who  leads  a  great 
movement  of  reform  may  see  the  distant,  but  has  seldom  a 
clear  vision  of  the  nearer  future.  He  is  one  who  feels  the 
slow  pressure  of  an  imperious  spiritual  power,  who  is  con- 
tent with  one  step  at  a  time,  and  who  does  not  ask  to  see 
the  whole  path  stretching  out  before  him. 

Erasmus  lost  both  his  parents  while  he  was  a  child, 
and  never  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  a  home  training.  He 
was  driven  by  deceit  or  by  self-deception  into  a  monastery 
when  he  was  a  lad.  He  escaped  from  the  clutches  of  the 
monastic  life  when  he  was  twenty  years  of  age,  broken  in 
health,  and  having  learned  to  know  human  nature  on  its 
bad  side  and  to  trade  on  that  knowledge.      He  was  one  of 


ERASMUS  177 

the  loneliest  of  mortals,  and  trusted  in  no  one  but  himself. 
With  one  great  exception,  he  had  no  friendship  which  left 
an  enduring  influence  on  his  character.  From  childhood 
he  taught  himself  in  his  own  way ;  when  he  grew  to  man- 
hood he  planned  and  schemed  for  himself ;  he  steadfastly- 
refused  to  be  drawn  into  any  kind  of  work  which  he  did 
not  like  for  its  own  sake ;  he  persistently  shunned  every 
entanglement  which  might  have  controlled  his  action  or 
weighted  him  with  any  responsibility.  He  stands  almost 
alone  among  the  Humanists  in  this.  All  the  others  were 
officials,  or  professors,  or  private  teachers,  or  jurists,  or 
ecclesiastics.  Erasmus  was  nothing,  and  would  be  nothing, 
but  a  simple  man  of  letters. 

Holbein  has  painted  him  so  often  that  his  features 
are  familiar.  Every  line  of  the  clearly  cut  face  suggests 
demure  sarcasm — the  thin  lips  closely  pressed  together,  the 
half-closed  eyelids,  and  the  keen  glance  of  the  scarcely 
seen  blue  eyes.  The  head  is  intellectual,  but  there  is 
nothing  masculine  about  the  portrait — nothing  suggesting 
the  massiveness  of  the  learned  burgher  Pirkheimer ;  or 
the  jovial  strength  of  the  Humanist  landsknecht  Eobanus 
Hessus ;  or  the  lean  wolf -like  tenacity  of  Hut  ten,  the 
descendant  of  robber-knights;  or  the  steadfast  homely 
courage  of  Martin  Luther.  The  dainty  hands,  which 
Holbein  drew  so  often,  and  the  general  primness  of  his 
appearance,  suggest  a  descent  from  a  long  line  of  maiden 
aunts.  The  keen  intelligence  was  enclosed  in  a  sickly 
body,  whose  frailty  made  continuous  demands  on  the  soul  it 
imprisoned.  It  needed  warm  rooms  with  stoves  that  sent 
forth  no  smell,  the  best  wines,  an  easy-going  horse,  and  a 
deft  servant ;  and  to  procure  all  these  comforts  Erasmus 
wrote  the  sturdiest  of  begging  letters  and  stooped  to  all 
kinds  of  flatteries. 

The  visit  which  Erasmus  paid  to  England  in  1498  was 
the  turning-point  in  his  life.  He  found  himself,  for  the 
first  time,  among  men  who  were  his  equals  in  learning  and 
his  superiors  in  many  things.  "  When  I  listen  to  my  friend 
Colet,"  he  says,  "  it  seems  to  me  like  listening  to  Plato 


178  HUMANISM    AND    REFORMATION 

himself.  Who  does  not  marvel  at  the  complete  mastery 
of  the  sciences  in  Grocyn  ?  What  could  be  keener,  more 
profound,  and  more  searching  than  the  judgment  of  Linacre  ? 
Has  Nature  ever  made  a  more  gentle,  a  sweeter,  or  a  happier 
disposition  than  Thomas  More's  ?  "  He  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  men  as  full  of  the  New  Learning  as  he  was  himself, 
who  hated  the  Scotist  theology  more  bitterly  than  he  did, 
and  who  nevertheless  believed  in  a  pure,  simple  Christian 
philosophy,  and  were  earnest  Christians.  They  urged  him 
to  join  them  in  their  work,  and  we  can  trace  in  the 
correspondence  of  Erasmus  the  growing  influence  of  Colet. 
The  Dean  of  St.  Paul's  made  Erasmus  the  decidedly 
Christian  Humanist  he  became,  and  impressed  on  him  that 
conception  of  a  reformation  which,  leaving  external  things 
very  much  as  they  were,  undertook  a  renovation  of  morals. 
He  never  lost  the  impress  of  Colet's  stamp. 

It  would  appear  from  one  of  Erasmus'  letters  that  Colet 
urged  him  to  write  commentaries  on  some  portions  of  the 
New  Testament ;  but  Erasmus  would  only  work  in  his  own 
way ;  and  it  is  probable  that  his  thoughts  were  soon  turned 
to  preparing  an  edition  of  the  New  Testament  in  Greek. 
The  task  was  long  brooded  over;  and  he  had  to  perfect 
himself  in  his  knowledge  of  the  language. 

This  determination  to  undertake  no  work  for  which  he 
was  not  supremely  fitted,  together  with  his  powers  of 
application  and  acquisition,  gave  Erasmus  the  reputation 
of  being  a  strong  man.  He  was  seen  to  be  unlike  any  other 
Humanist,  whether  Italian  or  German.  He  had  no  desire 
merely  to  reproduce  the  antique,  or  to  confine  himself 
within  the  narrow  circle  in  which  the  "  Poets "  of  the 
Eenaissance  worked.  He  put  ancient  culture  to  modern 
uses.  Erasmus  was  no  arm-chair  student.  He  was  one 
of  the  keenest  observers  of  everything  human — the  Lucian 
or  the  Voltaire  of  the  sixteenth  century.  From  under  his 
half-closed  eyelids  his  quick  glance  seized  and  retained 
the  salient  characteristics  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men 
and  women.  He  described  theologians,  jurists  and  philo- 
sophers, monks  and  parish  priests,  merchants  and  soldiers, 


ERASMUS  179 

husbancls  and   wives,  women  good  and  bad,  dancers  and 

diners,  pilgrims,  pardon-sellers,  and  keepers  of  relics;  the 
peasant  in  the  field,  the  artisan  in  the  workshop,  and  the 
vagrant  on  the  higliway.  He  had  studied  all,  and  could 
describe  them  with  a  few  deft  phrases,  as  incisive  as 
Diirer's  strokes,  with  an  almost  perfect  style,  and  with  easy 
sarcasm. 

i  This  application  of  the  New  Learning  to  portray  the 
^common  life,  combined  with  his  profound  learning,  made 
Erasmus  the  idol  of  the  young  German  Humanists.  They 
said  that  he  was  more  than  mortal,  that  his  judgment  was 
infallible,  and  that  his  work  was  perfect.  They  made 
pilgrimages  to  visit  him.  An  interview  was  an  event  to 
be  talked  about  for  years ;  a  letter,  a  precious  treasure  to  be 
bequeathed  as  an  heirloom.  Some  men  refused  to  render 
the  universal  homage  accorded  by  scholars  and  statesmen, 
by  princes  lay  and  clerical.  Luther  scented  Pelagian 
theology  in  his  annotations;  he  scorned  Erasmus'  wilful 
playing  with  truth ;  he  said  that  the  great  Humanist  was 
a  mocker  who  poured  ridicule  upon  everything,  even  on 
Christ  and  religion.  There  was  some  ground  for  the 
charge.  His  sarcasm  was  not  confined  to  his  Praise 
of  Folly  or  to  his  Colloquies,  It  appears  in  almost  every- 
thing that  he  wrote — even  in  his  Paraphrases  of  the  New 
Testament. 

That  such  a  man  should  have  felt  himself  called  upon 
to  be  a  reformer,  that  this  Saul  should  have  appeared 
among  the  prophets,  is  in  itself  testimony  that  he  lived 
during  a  great  religious  crisis,  and  that  the  religious 
question  was  the  most  important  one  in  his  days. 

The  principal  literary  works  of  Erasmus  meant  to 
serve  the  reformation  he  desired  to  see  are : — two  small 
books.  Enchiridion  militis  christiani  (A  Handbook  of  the 
Christian  Soldier^  or  A  Pocket  Dagger  for  the  Christian 
Soldier — it  may  be  translated  either  way),  first  printed  in 
1503,  and  Institutio  Principis  Christiani  (1518);  his 
Encomium  Morice  {Praise  of  Folly,  1511);  his  edition  of 
the  New  Testament,  or  Novum  InstrumerUum  (1616),  with 


180  HUMANISM   AND   REFORMATION 

prefaces   and    paraphrases ;    and    perhaps    many    of    the 
dialogues  in  his  Golloquia  (1519). 

Erasmus  himself  explains  that  in  the  Enchiridion  he 
wrote  to  counteract  the  vulgar  error  of  those  who  think 
that  religion  consists  in  ceremonies  and  in  more  than 
Jewish  observances,  while  they  neglect  what  really  belongs 
to  piety.  The  whole  aim  of  the  book  is  to  assert  the 
individual  responsibility  of  man  to  God  apart  from  any 
intermediate  human  agency.  Erasmus  ignores  as  com- 
pletely as  Luther  would  have  done  the  whole  mediaeval 
thought  of  the  mediatorial  function  of  the  Church  and  its 
priestly  order.  In  this  respect  the  book  is  essentially 
Protestant  and  thoroughly  revolutionary.  It  asserts  in  so 
many  words  that  much  of  the  popular  religion  is  pure 
paganism : 

"  One  worships  a  certain  Eochus,  and  why  ?  because  he 
fancies  he  will  drive  away  the  plague  from  his  body. 
Another  mumbles  prayers  to  Barbara  or  George,  lest  he  fall 
into  the  hands  of  his  enemy.  This  man  fasts  to  Apollonia 
to  prevent  the  toothache.  That  one  gazes  upon  an  image  of 
the  divine  Job,  that  he  may  be  free  from  the  itch.  ...  In 
short,  whatever  our  fears  and  our  desires,  we  set  so  many 
gods  over  them,  and  these  are  different  in  different  nations. 
.  .  .  This  is  not  far  removed  from  the  superstition  of  those 
who  used  to  vow  tithes  to  Hercules  in  order  to  get  rich,  or 
a  cock  to  ^sculapius  to  recover  from  an  illness,  or  who  slew 
a  bull  to  Neptune  for  a  favourable  voyage.  The  names  are 
changed,  but  the  object  is  the  same."  ^ 

In  speaking  of  the  monastic  life,  he  says : 

"  *  Love,'  says  Paul,  *  is  to  edify  your  neighbour,'  .  .  .  and 
if  this  only  were  done,  nothing  could  be  more  joyous  or  more 
easy  than  the  life  of  the  '  religious ' ;  but  now  this  life  seems 

*  Erasmus,  Opera  Omnia  (Leyden,  1703-1706),  v.  26.  The  sarcasm  of 
Erasmus  finds  ample  confirmation  in  Kerler's  Die  Patronate  der  Heiligen 
(Ulm,  1905),  where  St.  Rochus,  with  fifty-nine  companion  saints,  is  stated 
to  be  ready  to  hear  the  prayers  of  those  who  dread  the  plague  ;  St.  Apollonia, 
with  eighteen  others,  takes  special  interest  in  all  who  are  afflicted  with 
toothache ;  the  holy  Job,  with  thirteen  companions,  is  ready  to  cure  the 
itch  ;  and  St.  Barbara  with  St.  George  figure  as  protectors  against  a  violent 
death  ;  cf.  pp.  266-273,  419-422,  218-219,  358-359.  The  translations 
are  taken  from  Emerton's  Erasmus. 


ERASMUS  181 

gloomy,  full  of  Jewish  superstitions,  not  in  any  way  free 
from  the  vices  of  laymen  and  in  some  ways  more  corrupt. 
If  Augustine,  whom  they  boast  of  as  the  founder  of  their 
order,  came  to  life  again,  he  would  not  recognise  them;  he 
would  exclaim  that  he  had  never  approved  of  this  sort  of 
life,  but  had  organised  a  way  of  living  according  to  the  rule 
of  the  Apostles,  not  according  to  the  superstition  of  the 
Jews."i 

The  more  one  studies  the  Praise  of  Folly,  the  more 
evident  it  becomes  that  Erasmus  did  not  intend  to  write 
a  satire  on  human  weakness  in  general :  the  book  is  the 
most  severe  attack  on  the  mediaeval  Church  that  had,  up 
to  that  time,  been  made ;  and  it  was  meant  to  be  so.  The 
author  wanders  from  his  main  theme  occasionally,  but 
always  to  return  to  the  insane  follies  of  the  religious  life 
sanctioned  by  the  highest  authorities  of  the  mediaeval 
Church.  Popes,  bishops,  theologians,  monks,  and  the 
ordinary  lay  Christians,  are  all  unmitigated  fools  in  their 
ordinary  religious  life.  The  style  is  vivid,  the  author  has 
seen  what  he  describes,  and  he  makes  his  readers  see  it 
also.  He  writes  with  a  mixture  of  light  mockery  and 
bitter  earnestness.  He  exposes  the  foolish  questions  of 
the  theologians ;  the  vices  and  temporal  ambitions  of  the 
Popes,  bishops,  and  monks ;  the  stupid  trust  in  festivals, 
pilgrimages,  indulgences,  and  relics.  The  theologians,  the 
author  says,  are  rather  dangerous  people  to  attack,  for  they 
come  down  on  one  with  their  six  hundred  conclusions  and 
command  him  to  recant,  and  if  he  does  not  they  declare 
him  a  heretic  forthwith.  The  problems  which  interest 
them  are : 

"Whether  there  was  any  instant  of  time  in  the  divine 
generation  ?  .  .  .  Could  God  have  taken  the  form  of  a 
woman,  a  devil,  an  ass,  a  gourd,  or  a  stone  ?  How  the  gourd 
could  have  preached,  wrought  miracles,  hung  on  the  cross?"* 

He  jeers  at  the  Popes  and  higher  ecclesiastics : 

"Those  supreme   Pontiffs   who   stand  in  the  place  of 
Christ,  if  they  should  try  to  imitate  His  life,  that  is,  His 

*  Erasmus,  0;pera  Ovinia^  v.  35-36.  •  Ibid.  iv.  466. 


182  HUMANISM    AND    REFORMATION 

poverty,  His  toil.  His  teaching,  His  cross,  and  His  scorn  of 
this  world  .  .  .  what  could  be  more  dreadful !  .  .  .  We 
ought  not  to  forget  that  such  a  mass  of  scribes,  copyists, 
notaries,  advocates,  secretaries,  mule-drivers,  grooms,  money- 
changers, procurers,  and  gayer  persons  yet  I  might  mention^ 
did  I  not  respect  your  ears, — that  this  whole  swarm  which 
now  burdens — I  beg  your  pardon,  honours — the  Eoman  See 
would  be  driven  to  starvation."  ^ 

As  for  the  monks : 

*  The  greater  part  of  them  have  such  faith  in  their  cere- 
monies and  human  traditions,  that  they  think  one  heaven 
is  not  reward  enough  for  such  great  doings.  .  .  .  One  will 
show  his  belly  stuffed  with  every  kind  of  fish  ;  another  will 
pour  out  a  hundred  bushels  of  psalms ;  another  will  count 
up  myriads  of  fasts,  and  make  up  for  them  all  again  by 
almost  bursting  himself  at  a  single  dinner.  Another  will 
bring  forward  such  a  heap  of  ceremonies  that  seven  ships 
would  hardly  hold  them ;  another  boast  that  for  sixty  years 
he  has  never  touched  a  penny  except  with  double  gloves 
on  his  hands.  .  .  .  But  Christ  will  interrupt  their  endless 
bragging,  and  will  demand — 'Whence  this  new  kind  of 
Judaism  ? ' 

"  They  do  all  things  by  rule,  by  a  kind  of  sacred  mathe- 
matics ;  as,  for  instance,  how  many  knots  their  shoes  must 
be  tied  with,  of  what  colour  everything  must  be,  what  variety 
in  their  garb,  of  what  material,  how  many  straws'-breadth  to 
their  girdle,  of  what  form  and  of  how  many  bushels'  capacity 
their  cowl,  how  many  fingers  broad  their  hair,  and  how 
many  hours  they  sleep.  ..."  * 

He  ridicules  men  who  go  running  about  to  Eome,  Com- 
postella,  or  Jerusalem,  wasting  on  long  and  dangerous 
journeys  money  which  might  be  better  spent  in  feeding 
the  hungry  and  clothing  the  naked.  He  scoffs  at  those 
who  buy  Indulgences,  who  sweetly  flatter  themselves  with 
counterfeit  pardons,  and  who  have  measured  off  the  duration 
of  Purgatory  without  error,  as  if  by  a  water-clock,  into  ages, 
years,  months,  and  days,  like  the  multiplication  table.^  Is 
it  religion  to  believe  that  if  any  one  pays  a  penny  out  of 

'  Erasmus,  Opera  Omnia,  iv.  481-484.  ^  Ib<d.  iv.  471-474. 

•  Ibid.  iv.  446. 


ERASMUS  183 

what  he  has  stolen,  he  can  have  the  whole  slough  of  his 
life  cleaned  out  at  once,  and  all  his  perjuwes,  lusts,  drunken- 
nesses, all  his  quarrels,  murders,  cheats,  treacheries,  false- 
hoods, bought  off  in  such  a  way  that  he  may  begin  over 
again  with  a  new  circle  of  crimes  ?  The  reverence  for 
relics  was  perhaps  never  so  cruelly  satirised  as  in  the 
Colloquy,  Peregrinatio  Beligionis  Ergo. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  this  bitter  satire  was 
written  some  years  before  Luther  began  the  Eeformation 
by  an  attack  on  Indulgences.  It  may  seem  surprising 
how  much  liberty  the  satirist  allowed  himself,  and  how 
much  was  permitted  to  him.  But  Erasmus  knew  very 
well  how  to  protect  himself.  He  was  very  careful  to 
make  no  definite  attack,  and  to  make  no  mention  of  names. 
He  was  always  ready  to  explain  that  he  did  not  mean  to 
attack  the  Papacy,  but  only  bad  Popes ;  that  he  had  the 
highest  respect  for  the  monastic  life,  and  only  satirised 
evil-minded  monks ;  or  that  he  reverenced  the  saints,  but 
thought  that  reverence  ought  to  be  shown  by  imitating 
them  in  their  lives  of  piety.  He  could  say  all  this  with 
perfect  truth.  Indeed,  it  is  likely  that  with  all  his  scorn 
against  the  monks,  Erasmus,  in  his  heart,  believed  that  a 
devout  Capuchin  or  Franciscan  monk  lived  the  ideal  Chris- 
tian life.  He  seems  to  say  so  in  his  Colloquy,  Militis  et 
Carthusiani.  He  wrote,  moreover,  before  the  dignitaries  of 
the  mediaeval  Church  had  begun  to  take  alarm.  Liberal 
Churchmen  who  were  the  patrons  of  the  New  Learning  had 
no  objection  to  see  the  vices  of  the  times  and  the  Church 
life  of  the  day  satirised  by  one  who  wrote  such  exquisite 
latinity.  In  all  his  more  serious  work  Erasmus  was  care- 
ful to  shelter  himself  under  the  protection  of  great  eccle- 
siastics. 

Erasmus  was  not  the  only  scholar  who  had  proposed 
to  publish  a  correct  edition  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  The 
great  Spaniard,  Cardinal  Ximenes,  had  announced  that  he 
meant  to  bring  out  an  edition  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  in 
which  the  text  of  the  Vulgate  would  appear  in  parallel 
columns    along  with   the   Hebrew  and   the   Greek.     The 


184  HUMANISM    AND    REFORMATION 

prospectus  of  this  Complutensian  Polyglot  was  issued  as 
early  as  1502;  the  work  was  finished  in  1517,  and  was 
published  in  Spain  in  1520  and  in  other  lands  in  1522. 
Erasmus  was  careful  to  dedicate  the  first  edition  of  his 
Novum  Instrumentum  (1516)  to  Pope  Leo  X.,  who  graciously 
received  it.  He  sent  the  second  edition  to  the  same  Pope 
in  1519,  accompanied  by  a  letter  in  which  he  says: 

"  I  have  striven  with  all  my  might  to  kindle  men  from 
those  chilling  argumentations  in  which  they  had  been  so 
long  frozen  up,  to  a  zeal  for  theology  which  should  be  at  once 
more  pure  and  more  serious.  And  that  this  labour  has  so 
far  not  been  in  vain  I  perceive  from  this,  that  certain  persons 
are  furious  against  me,  who  cannot  value  anything  they  are 
unable  to  teach  and  are  ashamed  to  learn.  But,  trusting  to 
Christ  as  my  witness,  whom  my  writings  above  all  would 
guard,  to  the  judgment  of  your  Holiness,  to  my  own  sense 
of  right  and  the  approval  of  so  many  distinguished  men, 
I  have  always  disregarded  the  yelpings  of  these  people. 
Whatever  little  talent  I  have,  it  has  been,  once  for  all,  dedi- 
cated to  Christ :  it  shall  serve  His  glory  alone ;  it  shall  serve 
the  Koman  Church,  the  prince  of  that  Church,  but  especially 
your  Holiness,  to  whom  I  owe  more  than  my  whole  duty." 

He  dedicated  the  various  parts  of  the  Paraphrases  of  the 
New  Testament  to  Cardinal  Campeggio,  to  Cardinal  Wolsey, 
to  Henry  viii.,  to  Charles  v.,  and  to  Francis  i.  of  France. 
He  deliberately  placed  himself  imder  the  protection  of 
those  princes,  ecclesiastical  and  secular,  who  could  not  be 
suspected  of  having  any  revolutionary  designs  against  the 
existing  state  of  things  in  Church  or  in  State. 

In  all  this  he  was  followed  for  the  time  being  by  the 
most  distinguished  Christian  Humanists  in  England,  France, 
and  Germany.  They  were  full  of  the  brightest  hopes.  A 
Humanist  Pope  sat  on  the  throne  of  St.  Peter,  young 
Humanist  kings  ruled  France  and  England,  the  Emperor 
Maximilian  had  long  been  the  patron  of  German  Humanism, 
and  much  was  expected  from  his  grandson  Charles,  the 
young  King  of  Spain.  Erasmus,  the  acknowledged  prince 
of  Christian  learning,  was  enthusiastically  supported  by 
Colet  and  More  in  England,  by  Buddaeus  and  Lef^vre  in 


THE   CHRISTIAN   HUMANISTS  185 

France,  by  Johann  Staupitz,  Cochlseus,  Thomas  Murner, 
Jerome  Emser,  Conrad  Mutianus,  and  George  Spalatin  in 
Germany.  They  all  believed  that  the  golden  age  was 
approaching,  when  the  secular  princes  would  forbid  wars, 
and  the  ecclesiastical  lay  aside  their  rapacity,  and  when 
both  would  lead  the  peoples  of  Europe  in  a  reforma- 
tion of  morals  and  in  a  re-establishment  of  pure  religion. 
Their  hopes  were  high  that  all  would  be  effected  without 
the  "  tumult "  which  they  all  dreaded,  and  when  the  storm 
burst,  many  of  them  became  bitter  opponents  of  Luther 
and  his  action.  Luther  found  no  deadlier '  enemies  than 
Thomas  Murner  and  Jerome  Emser.  Others,  like  George 
Spalatin,  became  his  warmest  supporters.  Erasmus  main- 
tained to  the  end  his  attitude  of  cautious  neutrality.  In 
a  long  letter  to  Marlianus,  Bishop  of  Tuy  in  Spain,  he 
says  that  he  does  not  like  Luther's  writings,  that  he  feared 
from  the  first  that  they  would  create  a  "  tumult,"  but 
that  he  dare  not  altogether  oppose  the  reformer,  "  because 
he  feared  that  he  might  be  fighting  against  God."  The 
utmost  that  he  could  be  brought  to  do  after  the  strongest 
persuasions,  was  to  attack  Luther's  Augustinian  theology 
in  his  De  Zihero  Arhitrio,  and  to  insinuate  a  defence  of 
the  principle  of  ecclesiastical  authority  in  the  interpreta- 
tion of  Scripture,  and  a  proof  that  Luther  had  laid  too 
much  stress  on  the  element  of  "  grace  "  in  human  actions. 
He  turned  away  from  the  whole  movement  as  far  as  he 
possibly  could,  protesting  that  for  himself  he  would  ever 
cling  to  the  Eoman  See. 

The  last  years  of  his  life  were  spent  in  excessive  literary 
work — in  editing  the  earlier  Christian  Fathers ;  he  com- 
pleted his  edition  of  Origen  in  1536,  the  year  of  his 
death.  He  settled  at  Louvain,  and  found  it  too  hotly 
theological  for  his  comfort ;  went  to  Basel ;  wandered  off 
to  Freiburg ;  then  went  back  to  Basel  to  die.  After  his 
death  he  was  compelled  to  take  the  side  he  had  so  long 
shrunk  from.  Pope  Paul  IV.  classed  him  as  a  notorious 
heretic,  and  placed  on  the  first  papal  "  Index "  "  all  his 
commentaries,  notes,  scholia,  dialogues,  letters,  tmnslations, 


186  HUMANISM    AND    REFORMATION 

books,  and  writings,  even  when  they  contain  nothing  against 
religion  or  about  religion." 

We  look  in  vain  for  any  indication  that  those  Chris- 
tian Humanists  perceived  that  they  were  actually  living  in 
a  time  of  revolution,  and  were  really  standing  on  the  edge 
of  a  crater  which  was  about  to  change  European  history 
by  its  eruption.  Sir  Thomas  More's  instincts  of  religious 
life  were  all  mediseval.  Colet  had  persuaded  him  to 
abandon  his  earlier  impulse  to  enter  a  monastic  order,  but 
More  wore  a  hair  shirt  next  his  skin  till  the  day  of  his 
death.  Yet  in  his  sketch  of  an  ideal  commonwealth,  he 
expanded  St.  Paul's  thought  of  the  equality  of  all  men 
before  Christ  into  the  conception  that  no  man  was  to  be 
asked  to  work  more  than  six  hours  a  day,  and  showed  that 
religious  freedom  could  only  flourish  where  there  was 
nothing  in  the  form  of  the  mediaeval  Church.  The  lovable 
and  pious  young  Englishman  never  imagined  that  his 
academic  dream  would  be  translated  into  rude  practical 
thoughts  and  ruder  actions  by  leaders  of  peasant  and 
artisan  insurgents,  and  that  his  Uto'^ia  (1515),  within  ten 
years  after  its  publication,  and  ten  years  before  his  own 
death  (1535),  would  furnish  texts  for  communist  sermons, 
preached  in  obscure  public-houses  or  to  excited  audiences 
on  village  greens.  The  satirical  criticisms  of  the  hier- 
archy, the  monastic  orders,  and  the  popular  religious 
life,  which  Erasmus  flung  broadcast  so  recklessly  in  his 
lighter  and  more  serious  writings,  furnished  the  weapons 
for  the  leaders  in  that  "  tumult "  which  he  had  dreaded 
all  his  days ;  and  when  he  complained  that  few  seemed  to 
care  for  the  picture  of  a  truly  pious  life,  given  in  his 
Enchiridion,  he  did  not  foresee  that  it  would  become  a 
wonderfully  popular  book  among  those  who  renounced  all 
connection  with  the  See  of  Eome  to  which  the  author  had 
promised  a  life-long  obedience.  The  Christian  Humanists, 
one  and  all,  were  strangely  blind  to  the  signs  of  the  times 
in  which  they  lived. 

No  one  can  fail  to  appreciate  the  nobility  of  the  pur- 
pose to   work   for   a  great  moral  renovation   of  mankind 


THE   CHRISTIAN    HUMANISTS  187 

which  the  Christian  Humanists  ever  ko})t  hefore  them, 
or  refuse  to  see  that  they  were  always  and  everywhere 
preachers  of  righteousness.  When  we  remember  the  cen- 
tury and  a  ]ialf  of  wars,  so  largely  excited  by  ecclesiastical 
motives,  which  desolated  Europe  during  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries,  few  can  withhold  their  sympathy 
from  the  Christian  Humanist  idea  that  the  path  of  refor- 
mation lay  through  a  great  readjustment  of  the  existing 
conditions  of  the  religious  life,  rather  than  through  eccle- 
siastical revolution  to  a  thorough-going  reconstruction ; 
although  we  may  sadly  recognise  that  the  dynastic  struggles 
of  secular  princes,  the  rapacity  and  religious  impotence  of 
Popes  and  ecclesiastical  authorities,  and  the  imperious 
pressure  of  social  and  industrial  discontent,  made  the  path 
of  peace  impossible.  But  what  must  fill  us  with  surprise 
is  that  the  Christian  Humanists  seemed  to  believe  with  a 
childlike  innocence  that  the  constituted  authorities,  secular 
and  ecclesiastical,  would  lead  the  way  in  this  peaceful  reform, 
mainly  because  they  were  tinged  with  Humanist  culture, 
and  were  the  patrons  of  artists  and  men  of  learning. 
Humanism  meant  to  Pope  Leo  X.  and  to  the  young  Arch- 
bishop of  Mainz  additional  sources  of  enjoyment,  repre- 
sented by  costly  pictures,  collections  of  MSS.,  and  rare 
books,  the  gratification  of  their  taste  for  jewels  and  cameos, 
to  say  nothing  of  less  harmless  indulgences,  and  the  adula- 
tion of  the  circle  of  scholars  whom  they  had  attracted  to 
their  courts ;  and  it  meant  little  more  to  the  younger 
secular  princes. 

It  is  also  to  be  feared  that  the  Christian  Humanists 
had  no  real  sense  of  what  was  needed  for  that  renovation 
of  morals,  public  and  private,  which  they  ardently  desired 
to  see.  Pictures  of  a  Christian  life  lived  according  to  the 
principles  of  reason,  sharp  polemic  against  the  hierarchy, 
and  biting  mockery  of  the  stupidity  of  the  popular  religion, 
did  not  help  the  masses  of  the  people.  The  multitude  in 
those  early  decades  of  the  sixteenth  century  were  scourged 
by  constant  visitations  of  the  plague  and  other  new  and 
Btrange  diseases,  and  they  lived  in  perpetual  dread  of  a 


188  HUMANISM    AND    REFORMATION 

Turkish  invasion.  The  fear  of  death  and  the  judgment 
thereafter  was  always  before  their  eyes.  What  they 
wanted  was  a  sense  of  God's  forgiveness  for  their  sins, 
and  they  greedily  seized  on  Indulgences,  pilgrimages  to  holy 
places,  and  relic-worship  to  secure  the  pardon  they  longed 
for.  The  aristocratic  and  intellectual  reform,  contemplated 
by  the  Christian  Humanists,  scarcely  appealed  to  them. 
Their  longing  for  a  certainty  of  salvation  could  not  be 
satisfied  with  recommendations  to  virtuous  living  according 
to  the  rules  of  Neo-Platonic  ethics.  It  is  pathetic  to 
listen  to  the  appeals  made  to  Erasmus  for  something  more 
than  he  could  ever  give : 

"  *  Oh  !  Erasmus  of  Eotterdam,  where  art  thou  ?  *  said 
Albert  Diirer.  '  See  what  the  unjust  tyranny  of  earthly 
power,  the  power  of  darkness,  can  do.  Hear,  thou  knight 
of  Christ !  Eide  forth  by  the  side  of  the  Lord  Christ ;  de- 
fend the  truth,  gain  the  martyr's  crown !  As  it  is,  thou  art 
but  an  old  man.  I  have  heard  thee  say  that  thou  hast  given 
thyself  but  a  couple  more  years  of  active  service  ;  spend 
them,  I  pray,  to  the  profit  of  the  gospel  and  the  true  Chris- 
tian faith,  and  believe  me  the  gates  of  Hell,  the  See  of  Kome, 
as  Christ  has  said,  will  not  prevail  against  thee.' "  ^ 

The  Eeformation  needed  a  man  who  had  himself  felt  that 
commanding  need  of  pardon  which  was  sending  his  fellows 
travelling  from  shrine  to  shrine,  who  could  tell  them  in 
plain  homely  words,  which  the  common  man  could  under- 
stand, how  each  one  of  them  could  win  that  pardon  for 
himself,  who  could  deliver  them  from  the  fear  of  the  priest, 
and  show  them  the  way  to  the  peace  of  God.  The  Eefor- 
mation needed  Luther. 

^  Leitschuh,  AlbrecJU  Diirer' $  Tagehieh  der  Heist  in  die  NiederiaruU 
(Leipzig,  1884),  p.  84. 


BOOK  11. 
THE  REFORMATION. 

CHAPTER  I. 

LUTHER  TO  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  CONTROVERSY 
ABOUT  INDULGENCES.^ 

§  1.    Why  Lntlier  was  successful  as  the  Leader  in  a 
Reformation, 

Reformation  had  been  attempted  in  various  ways.  Learned 
ecclesiastical  Jurists  had  sought  to  bring  it  about  in  the 
fifteenth  century  by  what  was  called  Gonciliar  Reform. 
The  sincerity  and  ability  of  the  leaders  of  the  movement 
are  unquestioned;  but  they  had  failed  ignominiously,  and 

*  Sources:   Melanchtlion,  Historia  de  vita  et  actis  Lutheri  (Witten- 
berg, 1545,  in  the  Corpus  Eeformatorum,   vi.);  Mathesius,  Historien  von 
,  .  Martini  Lutheri,  Anfang,  Lere,  Lehen  und  Sterben  (Prague,  1896)  ; 
Myconius,  Historia  Reformationis  1517-154^  (Leipzig,  1718) ;  Ratzeberger, 
Geschichte  iiber  Luther  und  seine  Zeit  (Jena,  1850) ;  Killian  Leib,  Annales 
von  1603-1523  (vols.  vii.  and  ix.  of  v.  Are  tin's  Bcitrage  zur  Geschichte  und 
Litteratur,  Munich,  1803-1806) ;  Wrampelmeyer,  Tagehuch  iiber  Dr.  Martin 
Luther,   gefiihrt  von  Dr.    Conrad  Cordatus,  1537  (Halle,   1885) ;    Caspar 
Cruciger,    Tabuloe  chronologicos  actorum  M.  Lutheri  (Wittenberg,   1553) 
Forstemann,  Neues  Urkundenbuch  zur  Geschichte  der  evangelischen  Kirchen 
reformation  (Hamburg,  1842) ;  Kolde,  Analecta  Luthcrana  (Gotha,  1883) 
G.  Loesche,  Analecta  Lutherana  et  Melanchthoniana  (Gotha,  1892)  ;  Loscher 
Vollstdndige    Reformations- A  eta    und    Documenta    (Leipzig,    1720-1729) 
Enders,  Dr.  Martin  Luther's  Briefwechsel,  5  vols.  (Frankfurt,  1884-1893) 
De  Wette,  Dr.  Martin  Luther's  Briefe,  Sendschreiben  und  Bedenken,  5  vols. 
(Berlin,  1825-1828);  J.  Cochloeus  (Rom.  Cath.),  Ccmvientarius  de  actis  et 
scriptis  M.  Lutheri  .  .  .  o6  anno  1517  usque  ad  annum  1537  (St.  Victor 
prope  Mogiintiam,    1549) ;    V.    L.    Seckendorf,    Commerdarius    .    .   .    de 
Lutheranismo   (Frankfurt,    1692)  ;    C&astitutioaea    Fratrum    Heremitaram 
Scmcti  Augustini  (Ntlrnberg,  1504)  ;  Cambridge  Modern  History,  ii.  iv. 
Later  Books  :    J.    Kostlin,    Martin   LiUher,   sein    Lehen    und  seine 

189 


L90   LUTHER  TO  THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

the  Papacy  with  all  its  abuses  had  never  been  so  powerful 
ecclesiastically  as  when  its  superior  diplomacy  had  van- 
quished the  endeavour  to  hold  it  in  tutelage  to  a  council 

The  Christian  Humanists  had  made  their  attempt — 
preaching  a  moral  renovation  and  the  application  of  the 
existing  laws  of  the  Church  to  punish  ecclesiastical  wrong 
doers.  Colet  eloquently  assured  the  Anglican  Convocation 
that  the  Church  possessed  laws  which,  if  only  enforced, 
contained  provisions  ample  enough  to  curb  and  master  the 
ills  which  all  felt  to  be  rampant.  Erasmus  had  held  up 
to  scorn  the  debased  religious  life  of  the  times,  and  had 
denounced  its  Judaism  and  Paganism.  Both  were  men  of 
scholarship  and  genius ;  but  they  had  never  been  able  to 
move  society  to  its  depths,  and  awaken  a  new  religious  life, 
which  was  the  one  thing  needfuL 

History  knows  nothing  of  revivals  of  moral  living 
apart  from  some  new  religious  impulse.  The  motive 
power  needed  has  always  come  through  leaders  who  have 
had  communion  with  the  unseen.  Humanism  had  supplied 
a  superfluity  of  teachers;  the  times  needed  a  prophet. 
They  received  one ;  a  man  of  the  people ;  bone  of  their 
bone,  and  flesh  of  their  flesh ;  one  who  had  himself  lived 
that  popular  religious  life  with  all  the  thoroughness  of  a 
strong,  earnest  nature,  who  had  sounded  all  its  depths  and 
tested  its  capacities,  and  gained  in  the  end  no  relief  for  his 

Schriften,  2  vols.  ( Berlin,1889) ;  Th.  Kolde,  Martin  Luther.  Eine  Biographie, 
2  vols.  (Gotha,  1884,  1893) ;  A.  Hausrath,  Luther's  Lehen,  2  vols.  (Berlin, 
1904) ;  Lindsay,  Luther  arid  th$  German  Reformation  (Edinburgh,  1900) ; 
Kolde,  Friedrich  der  Weise  und  die  Anfdnge  der  Reformation  mit  archi- 
valischen  Beilagen  (Erlangen,  1881),  and  Die  deutsche  Augustiner- Con- 
gregation und  Johannv.  Staupitz  (Gotha,  1879);  A.  Hausrath,  M.  Luther's 
Romfahrt  nach  einem  gleichzeitigen  Pilgerhuche  (Berlin,  1894)  ;  Oergel, 
Vom  jungen  Luther  (Erfurt,  1899) ;  Jiirgens,  Luther  von  seiner  Geburt  bis 
turn  Ablassstreit,  3  vols.  (Leipzig,  1846-1847);  Krumhaar,  Die  Grafschaft 
Mansfeld  im  Reformationszeitalter  (Eisleben,  1845) ;  Buchwald,  Zur 
Wittenberg  Stadt-  und  Universitdtsgeschichte  in  der  Reformationszeit  (Leipzig, 
1893) ;  Kampschulte,  Die  Universitdt  JErfurt  in  ihrem  Verhdltniss  zu  dem 
Humanismus  und  der  Reformation  (Trier,  1856-18G0);  Cambridge  Mod- 
ern History,  II.  iv.;  Smith,  Luther's  Table  Talk;  A  Critical  Study  (New 
York,  1907);  Currie,  The  Letters  of  Martin  Luther  (London,  1908). 


WHY    LUTHER   SUCCEEDED  191 

burdened  conscience ;  who  had  at  last  found  his  way  into 
the  presence  of  God,  and  who  knew,  by  his  own  personal 
experience,  that  the  living  God  was  accessible  to  every 
Christian.  He  had  won  the  freedom  of  a  Christian  man, 
and  had  reached  through  faith  a  joy  in  living  far  deeper 
than  that  which  Humanism  boasted.  He  became  a  leader 
of  men,  because  his  joyous  faith  made  him  a  hero  by 
delivering  him  from  all  fear  of  Church  or  of  clergy — the 
fear  which  had  weighed  down  the  consciences  of  men  for 
generations.  Men  could  see  what  faith  was  when  they 
looked  at  Luther. 

It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  to  his  contemporaries 
Luther  was. the  embodiment  of  personal  piety.  All  spoke 
of  his  sensitiveness  to  religious  impressions  of  all  kinds  in 
his  early  years.  While  he  was  inside  the  convent,  whether 
before  or  after  he  had  found  deliverance  for  his  troubles  of 
soul,  his  fellows  regarded  him  as  a  model  of  piety.  In 
later  days,  when  he  stood  forth  as  a  Reformer,  he  became 
such  a  power  in  the  hearts  of  men  of  all  sorts  and  ranks, 
because  he  was  seen  to  be  a  thoroughly  pious  man.  Albert 
Diirer  may  be  taken  as  a  type.  In  the  great  painter's 
diary  of  the  journey  he  made  with  his  wife  and  her  maid 
Susanna  to  the  Netherlands  (1520), — a  mere  summary  of 
the  places  he  visited  and  the  persons  he  saw,  of  what  he 
paid  for  food  and  lodging  and  travel,  of  the  prices  he  got 
for  his  pictures,  and  what  he  paid  for  his  purchases, 
literary  and  artistic, — he  tells  how  he  heard  of  Luther's 
condemnation  at  Worms,  of  the  Reformer's  disappearance, 
of  his  supposed  murder  by  Popish  emissaries  (for  so  the 
report  went  through  Germany),  and  the  news  compelled 
him  to  that  pouring  forth  of  prayers,  of  exclamations,  of 
fervent  appeals,  and  of  bitter  regrets,  which  fills  three  out 
of  the  whole  forty-six  pages.  The  Luther  he  almost 
worships  is  the  "  pious  man,"  the  "  follower  of  the  Lord 
and  of  the  true  Christian  faith,"  the  "  man  enlightened  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,"  the  man  who  had  been  done  to  death  by 
the  Pope  and  the  priests  of  liis  day,  as  the  Son  of  God  had 
been  murdered   by   the   priests  of  Jerusalem.       The   one 


192   LUTHER  TO  THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

thing  which  fills  the  great  painter's  mind  is  the  personal 
religious  life  of  the  man  Martin  Luther.^ 

Another  source  of  Luther's  power  was  that  he  had 
been  led  step  by  step,  and  that  his  countrymen  could 
follow  him  deliberately  without  being  startled  by  any  too 
sudden  changes.  He  was  one  of  themselves;  he  took 
them  into  his  confidence  at  every  stage  of  his  public 
career;  they  knew  him  thoroughly.  He  had  been  a 
monk,  and  that  was  natural  for  a  youth  of  his  exemplary 
piety.  He  had  lived  a  model  monastic  life;  his  com- 
panions and  his  superiors  were  unwearied  in  commending 
him.  He  had  spoken  openly  what  almost  all  good  men 
had  been  feeling  privately  about  Indulgences  in  plain 
language  which  all  could  understand ;  and  he  had 
gradually  taught  himself  and  his  countrymen,  who  were 
following  his  career  breathlessly,  that  the  man  who  trusted 
in  God  did  not  need  to  fear  the  censures  of  Pope  or  of 
the  clergy.  He  emancipated  not  merely  the  learned  and 
cultivated  classes,  but  the  common  people,  from  the  fear 
of  the  Church;  and  this  was  the  one  thing  needful  for 
a  true  reformation.  So  long  as  the  people  of  Europe 
believed  that  the  priesthood  had  some  mysterious  powers, 
no  matter  how  vague  or  indefinite,  over  the  spiritual  and 
eternal  welfare  of  men  and  women,  freedom  of  conscience 
and  a  renovation  of  the  public  and  private  moral  life  was 
impossible.  The  spiritual  world  will  always  have  its 
anxieties  and  terrors  for  every  Christian  soul,  and  the 
greatest  achievement  of  Luther  was  that  by  teaching  and, 
above  all,  by  example,  he  showed  the  common  man  that 
he  was  in  God's  hands,  and  not  dependent  on  the  blessing 
or  banning  of  a  clerical  caste.  For  Luther's  doctrine  of 
Justification  by  Faith,  as  he  himself  showed  in  his  tract 
on  the  Liberty  of  a  Christian  Man  (1520),  was  simply 
that  there  was  nothing  in  the  indefinite  claim  which  the 
medieeval  Church  had  always  made.  From  the  momert 
the   common    people,  simple   men  and   women,  knew   and 

*  Albrecht  Diirer's  Tagebuch  der  Re  Lie  in  die  Niederlande.     Edited  bj 
Dr.  ■^.  Leitschuh  (Leipzig,  1884),  pp.  28-84. 


193 

felt  this,  tliey  were  freed  from  the  mysterious  dread  of 
Church  and  priesthood;  they  could  look  the  clergy  fairly 
in  the  face,  and  could  care  little  for  their  threats.  It  was 
because  Luther  had  freed  himself  from  this  dread,  because 
the  people,  who  knew  him  to  be  a  deeply  pious  man,  saw 
that  he  was  free  from  it,  and  therefore  that  they  need  be 
in  no  concern  about  it,  that  he  became  the  great  reformer 
and  the  popular  leader  in  an  age  which  was  compelled  to 
revise  its  thoughts  about  spiritual  things. 

Hence  it  is  that  we  may  say  without  exaggeration  that 
the  Eeformation  was  embodied  in  Martin  Luther,  that  it 
lived  in  him  as  in  no  one  else,  and  that  its  innev  religious 
history  may  be  best  studied  in  the  record  or  his  spiritual 
experiences  and  in  the  growth  of  his  religious  convictions. 

§  2.  Luther's  Youth  and  Education, 

Martin  Luther  was  born  in  1483  (Nov.  10th)  at 
Eisleben,  and  spent  his  childhood  in  the  small  mining 
town  of  Mansfeld.  His  father,  Hans  Luther,  had  belonged 
to  Mohra  (Moortown),  a  small  peasant  township  lying  in 
the  north-east  corner  of  the  Thuringian  Wald,  and  his 
mother,  Margarethe  Ziegler,  had  come  from  a  burgher  family 
in  Eisenach.  It  was  a  custom  among  these  Thuringian 
peasants  that  only  one  son,  and  that  usually  the  youngest, 
inherited  the  family  house  and  the  croft.  The  others  were 
sent  out  one  by  one,  furnished  with  a  small  store  of  money 
from  the  family  strong-box,  to  make  their  way  in  the 
world.  Hans  Luther  had  determined  to  become  a  miner 
in  the  Mansfeld  district,  where  the  policy  of  the  Counts 
of  Mansfeld,  of  building  and  letting  out  on  hire  small 
smelting  furnaces,  enabled  thrifty  and  skilled  workmen  to 
rise  in  the  world.  The  father  soon  made  his  way.  He 
leased  one  and  then  three  of  these  furnaces.  He  won  the 
respect  of  his  neighbours,  for  he  became,  in  1491,  one  of 
the  faar  members  of  the  village  council,  and  we  are  told 
that  the  Counts  of  Mansfeld  held  him  in  esteem. 

In  the  earlier  years,  when  Luther  was  a  child,  the 
13* 


194   LUTHER  TO  THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

family  life  was  one  of  grinding  poverty,  and  Luther  often 
recalled  the  hard  struggles  of  his  parents.      He  had  often 
seen  his  mother  carrying  the  wood  for  the  family  fire  from 
the   forest  on  her    poor   shoulders.     The   child   grew   up 
among  the  hard,  grimy,  coarse  surroundings  of  the  German 
working-class  hfe,  protected  from  much  that  was  evil  by 
the  wise  severity  of  his  parents.     He  imbibed  its  simple 
political    and    ecclesiastical    ideas.     He    learned  that   the 
Emperor  was  God's  ruler  on  earth,  who  would  protect  poor 
people  against  the  Turk,  and   that   the   Church  was   the 
"Pope's  House,"  in  which  the  Bishop  of   Kome  was   the 
house-father.     He  was  taught  the  Creed,  the   Ten   Com- 
mandments, and  the  Lord's  Prayer.     He  sang  such  simple 
evangelical  hymns  as  "Ein  Kindelein  so  lobelich,"  "Nun 
bitten  wir  den  heiligen  Geist,"  and  "  Crist  ist  erstanden." 
He  was   a  dreamy,  contemplative  child ;  and  the  unseen 
world  was  never  out  of  his  thoughts.     He  knew  that  some 
of  the  miners  practised  sorcery  in  dark  corners  below  the 
earth.     He   feared  an   old   woman   who   lived   near;    she 
was  a  witch,  and   the   priest  himself  was   afraid   of   her. 
He  was  taught  about  Hell  and  Purgatory  and  the  Judg- 
ment to  come.     He  shivered  whenever  he  looked  at  the 
stained-glass  window  in   the   parish   church  and  saw  the 
frowning  face  of  Jesus,  who,  seated  on  a  rainbow  and  with 
a  flaming  sword  in  His  hand,  was  coming  to  judge  him, 
he  knew  not  when.     He  saw  the  crowds  of  pilgrims  who 
streamed  past  Mansfeld,  carrying  their  crucifixes  high,  and 
chanting  their  pilgrim  songs,  going  to  the  Bruno  Quertfort 
chapel   or  to   the   old   church   at  Wimmelberg.     He  saw 
paralytics  and  maimed  folk  carried  along  the  roads,  going 
to  embrace  the  wooden   cross  at  Kyffhaiiser,  and   find  a 
miraculous   cure;  and  sick   people   on   their   way   to   the 
cloister  church  at  Wimmelberg  to  be  cured  by  the  sound 
of  the  blessed  bells. 

The  boy  Luther  went  to  the  village  school  in  Mansfeld, 
and  endured  the  cruelties  of  a  merciless  pedagogue.  He 
was  sent  for  a  year,  in  1497,  to  a  school  of  the  Brethren 
of  the  Common  Lot  in  Magdeburg.     Then  he  went  to  St. 


AT    ERFURT  195 

George*8  school  in  Eisenach,  where  he  remained  three 
years.  He  was  a  "  poor  scholar,"  which  meant  a  boy  who 
received  his  lodging  and  education  free,  was  obliged  to  sing 
in  the  church  choir,  and  was  allowed  to  sing  in  the  streets, 
begging  for  food.  The  whole  town  was  under  the  spell 
of  St.  Elizabeth,  the  pious  landgravine,  who  had  given  up 
family  life  and  all  earthly  comforts  to  earn  a  mediaeval 
saintship.  It  contained  nine  monasteries  and  nunneries, 
many  of  them  dating  back  to  the  days  of  St.  Elizabeth ; 
her  good  deeds  were  emblazoned  on  the  windows  of  the 
church  in  which  Luther  sang  as  choir-boy;  he  had  long 
conversations  with  the  monks  who  belonged  to  her  founda- 
tions. The  boy  was  being  almost  insensibly  attracted  to 
that  revival  of  the  mediaeval  religious  life  which  was  fche 
popular  religious  force  of  these  days.  He  had  glimpses  of 
the  old  homely  evangelical  piety,  this  time  accompanied  by 
a  refinement  of  manners  Luther  had  hitherto  been  un-'' 
acquainted  with,  in  the  house  of  a  lady  who  is  identified  by 
biographers  with  a  certain  Frau  Cotta.  The  boy  enjoyed 
it  intensely,  and  his  naturally  sunny  nature  expanded  under 
its  influence.  But  it  did  not  touch  him  religiously.  He 
has  recorded  that  it  was  with  incredulous  surprise  that  he 
heard  his  hostess  say  that  there  was  nothing  on  earth  more 
lovely  than  the  love  of  husband  and  wife,  when  it  is  in  the 
fear  of  the  Lord. 

After  three  years*  stay  at  Eisenach,  Luther  entered  thai' 
University  of  Erfurt  (1501),  then  the  most  famous  in 
Germany.  It  had  been  founded  in  1392  by  the  burghers 
of  the  town,  who  were  intensely  proud  of  their  own  Uni- 
versity, and  especially  of  the  fact  that  it  had  far  surpaj^.sed 
other  seats  of  learning  which  owed  their  origin  to  princes. 
The  academic  and  burgher  life  were  allied  at  Erfurt  as  they 
were  in  no  other  University  town.  The  days  of  graduation 
were  always  town  holidays,  and  at  the  graduation  pro- 
cessions the  oflficials  of  the  city  walked  with  the  University 
authorities.  Luther  tells  us  that  when  he  first  saw  the 
newly  made  graduates  marching  in  their  new  graduation 
robes  in   the  middle  of  the   procession,  he  thought  that 


196   LUTHER  TO  THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

they  had  attained  to  the  summit  of  earthly  felicity.  The 
University  of  Erfurt  was  also  strictly  allied  to  the  Church. 
Different  Popes  had  enriched  it  with  privileges  ;  the  Primate 
of  Germany,  the  Archbishop  of  Mainz,  was  its  Chancellor ; 
many  of  its  professors  held  ecclesiastical  prebends,  or  were 
monks ;  each  faculty  was  under  the  protection  of  a  tutelary 
saint ;  the  teachers  had  to  swear  to  teach  nothing  opposed 
to  the  doctrines  of  the  Eoman  Church ;  and  special  pains 
were  taken  to  prevent  the  rise  and  spread  of  heresy. 

Its  students  were  exposed  to  a  greater  variety  of 
influences  than  those  of  any  other  seat  of  learning  in 
Germany.  Its  theology  represented  the  more  modern  type 
of  scholastic,  the  Scotist ;  its  philosophy  was  the  nominalist 
teaching  of  William  of  Occam,  whose  great  disciple,  Gabriel 
Biel  (d.  1495),  had  been  one  of  its  most  celebrated  pro- 
fessors ;  the  system  of  biblical  interpretation,  first  intro- 
duced by  Nicholas  de  Lyra^  (d.  1340),  had  been  long 
taught  at  Erfurt  by  a  succession  of  able  masters ;  Human- 
ism had  won  an  early  entrance,  and  in  Luther's  time  the 
Erfurt  circle  of  "  Poets  "  was  already  famous.  The  strongly 
anti-clerical  teaching  of  John  of  Wessel,  who  had  lectured 
in  Erfurt  for  fifteen  years  (1445—1460),  had  left  its  mark 
on  the  University,  and  was  not  forgotten.  Hussite  propa- 
gandists, Luther  tells  us,  appeared  from  time  to  time, 
whispering  among  the  students  their  strange,  anti-clerical 
Christian  socialism.  While,  as  if  by  way  of  antidote,  there 
came  Papal  Legates,  whose  magnificence  bore  witness  to 
the  might  of  the  Eoman  Church. 

Luther  had  been  sent  to  Erfurt  to  learn  Law,  and  the 
Faculty  of  Philosophy  gave  the  preliminary  training  re- 

^  Nicholas,  born  at  Lyre,  a  village  in  Normandy,  was  one  of  the  earliest 
students  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  ;  he  explained  the  accepted  fourfold  sense 
of  Scripture  in  the  following  distich  : 

" Litera  gesta  docet,  quid  credas  Allegoria^ 
Moralis  quid  agas,  quo  tendas  Anagogia** 

Luther  used  his  commentaries  when  he  became  Professor  of  Theology  at 
Wittenberg,  and  acknowledged  the  debt ;  but  it  is  too  much  to  say : 
**Si  Lyra  non  lyrasset, 
Lutherus  non  saltasset." 


AT    ERFURT  197 

quired.  The  young  student  worked  hard  at  the  prescribed 
tasks.  The  Scholastic  Philosophy,  he  said,  left  him  little 
time  for  classical  studies,  and  he  attended  none  of  the 
Humanist  lectures.  He  found  time,  however,  to  read  a 
good  many  Latin  authors  privately,  and  also  to  learn  some- 
thing of  Greek.  Virgil  and  Plautus  were  his  favourite 
authors ;  Cicero  also  charmed  him ;  he  read  Livy,  Terence, 
and  Horace.  He  seems  also  to  have  read  a  volume  of 
selections  from  Propertius,  Persius,  Lucretius,  Tibullus, 
Silvius  Italicus,  Statins,  and  Claudian.  But  he  was  never 
a  member  of  the  Humanist  circle;  he  was  too  much  in 
earnest  about  religious  questions,  and  of  too  practical  a 
turn  of  mind. 

The  scanty  accounts  of  Luther's  student  days  show 
that  he  was  a  hardworking,  bright,  sociable  youth,  and 
musical  to  the  core.  His  companions  called  him  "  the 
Philosopher,"  "  the  Musician,"  and  spoke  of  his  lute-playing, 
of  his  singing,  and  of  his  ready  power  in  debate.  He 
took  his  various  degrees  in  unusually  short  time.  He 
was  Bachelor  in  1502,  and  Master  in  1505.  His  father, 
proud  of  his  son's  success,  had  sent  him  the  costly  present  of 
a  Corpus  Juris.  He  may  have  begun  to  attend  the  lectures 
in  the  Faculty  of  Law,  when  he  suddenly  plunged  into  the 
Erfurt  Convent  of  the  Augustinian  Eremites. 

The  action  was  so  sudden  and  unexpected,  that  con- 
temporaries felt  bound  to  give  all  manner  of  explanations, 
and  these  have  been  woven  together  into  accounts  which 
are  legendary.^  Luther  himself  has  told  us  that  he  entered 
the  monastery  because  he  doubted  of  himself  \  that  in  his 

*  There  is  one  persistent  contemporary  suggestion,  that  Luther  was 
finally  driven  to  take  the  step  by  the  sudden  death  of  a  companion,  for 
which  a  good  deal  may  be  saiil.  Oergel  has  shown,  from  minute  researches 
in  the  university  archives,  that  a  special  friend  of  Luther's,  Hieronymus 
Ponta  of  Windsheim,  who  was  working  along  with  him  for  his  Magister's 
degi-ee,  died  suddenly  of  pleurisy  before  the  end  of  the  examination ;  that 
a  few  weeks  after  Luther  had  taken  his  degree,  another  promising  student 
whom  he  knew  died  of  the  plague ;  that  the  plague  broke  out  again  in 
Erfurt  three  months  afterwards ;  and  that  Luther  entered  the  convent  ft 
few  days  after  this  second  appearance  of  the  plague. — Cf.  Georg  Oergel^ 
Vomjungen  Luther  (Erfurt,  1899),  pp.  35-41. 


198   LUTHER  TO  THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

case  the  proverb  was  true,  "  Doubt  makes  a  monk."  He 
also  said  that  his  resolve  was  a  sudden  one,  because  he 
knew  that  his  decision  would  grieve  his  father  and  his 
mother. 

What  was  the  doubting  ?  We  are  tempted  in  these 
days  to  think  of  intellectual  difficulties,  and  Luther's 
doubting  is  frequently  attributed  to  the  self-questioning 
which  his  contact  with  Humanism  at  Erfurt  had  engen- 
dered. But  this  idea,  if  not  foreign  to  the  age,  was  strange 
to  Luther.  His  was  a  simple  pious  nature,  practical  rather 
than  speculative,  sensitive  and  imaginative.  He  could  play 
with  abstract  questions  ;  but  it  was  pictures  that  compelled 
him  to  action.  He  has  left  on  record  a  series  of  pictures 
which  were  making  deeper  and  more  permanent  impression 
on  him  as  the  years  passed;  they  go  far  to  reveal  the 
history  of  his  struggles,  and  to  tell  us  what  the  doubts 
were  which  drove  him  into  the  convent.  The  picture  on 
the  window  in  Mansfeld  church  of  Jesus  sitting  on  a  rain- 
bow, with  frowning  countenance  and  drawn  sword  in  His 
hand,  coming  to  judge  the  wicked ;  the  altar-piece  at 
Magdeburg  representing  a  great  ship  sailing  heavenwards, 
no  one  within  the  ship  but  priests  or  monks,  and  in  the 
sea  laymen  drowning,  or  saved  by  ropes  thrown  to  them 
by  the  priests  and  monks  who  were  safe  on  board ;  the 
living  picture  of  the  prince  of  Anhalt,  who  to  save  his 
soul  had  become  a  friar,  and  carried  the  begging  sack  on 
his  bent  shoulders  through  the  streets  of  Magdeburg ;  the 
history  of  St.  Elizabeth  blazoned  on  the  windows  of  the 
church  at  Eisenach ;  the  young  Carthusian  at  Eisenach, 
who  the  boy  thought  was  the  holiest  man  he  had  ever 
talked  to,  and  who  had  so  mortified  his  body  that  he  had 
come  to  look  like  a  very  old  man;  the  terrible  deathbed 
scene  of  the  Erfurt  ecclesiastical  dignitary,  a  man  who 
held  twenty-two  benefices,  and  whom  Luther  had  often 
seen  riding  in  state  in  the  great  processions,  who  was 
known  to  be  an  evil-liver,  and  who  when  he  came  to  die 
filled  the  room  with  his  frantic  cries.  Luther  doubted 
whether  he  could  ever  do  what  he  believed  had  to  be  done 


IN  THE  ERFURT  CONVENT         199 

by  him  to  save  his  soul  if  he  remained  in  the  world. 
That  was  what  compt  lied  him  to  become  a  monk,  and  bury 
himself  in  the  convent.  The  lurid  fires  of  Hell  and  the 
pale  shades  of  Purgatory,  which  are  the  permanent  back- 
ground to  Dante's  Paradise,  were  present  to  Luther's  mind 
from  childhood.  Could  he  escape  the  one  and  gain  entrance 
to  the  other  if  he  remained  in  the  world  ?  He  doubted  it, 
and  entered  the  convent. 


§  3.  Luther  in  the  Erfurt  Convert, 

It  was  a  convent  of  the  Augustinian  Eremites,  perhaps 
the  most  highly  esteemed  of  monastic  orders  by  the  common 
people  of  Germany  during  the  earlier  decades  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  They  represented  the  very  best  type  of 
that  superstitious  mediaeval  revival  which  has  been  already 
described.^  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  because  they 
bore  the  name  of  Augustine,  the  evangelical  theology  of 
the  great  Western  Father  was  known  to  them.  Their 
leading  theologians  belonged  to  another  and  very  different 
school  The  two  teachers  of  theology  in  the  Erfurt  con- 
vent, when  Luther  entered  in  1505,  were  John  Genser  of 
Paltz,  and  John  Nathin  of  Neuenkirchen.  The  former  was 
widely  known  from  his  writings  in  favour  of  the  strictest 
form  of  papal  absolutism,  of  the  doctrine  of  Attrition^  and 
of  the  efficacy  of  papal  Indulgences.  It  is  not  probable 
that  Luther  was  one  of  his  pupils ;  for  he  retired  broken 
in  health  and  burdened  with  old  age  in  1 5  0  7.^  The  latter, 
though  unknown  beyond  the  walls  of  the  convent,  was  an 
able  and  severe  master.  He  was  an  ardent  admirer  of 
Gabriel  Biel,  of  Peter  d'Ailly,  and  of  William  of  Occam 
their  common  master.     He   thought  little  of  any   inde-  I 

»  Cf.  above,  pp.  127  ff. 

*  In  my  chapter  on  Luther  in  the  Cambridge  Modern  History^  ii.  p.  114, 
where  notes  were  not  permitted,  I  have  said  with  too  nmch  abruptness  that 
John  of  Paltz  was  "the  teacher  of  Luther  himself."  Luther  was  certainly 
taught  the  theology  of  John  of  Paltz,  and  the  latter  was  residing  in  the 
monastery  daring  two  years  of  Luther's  stay  there ;  but  it  is  more  probable 
that  Lather's  actual  instructor  was  Nathin. 


200     LUTHER  TO  THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

pendent  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  "  Brother  Martin," 
he  once  said  to  Luther,  "  let  the  Bible  alone;  read  the  old 
teachers;  they  give  you  the  whole  marrow  of  the  Bible; 
reading  the  Bible  simply  breeds  unrest."^  Afterwards  he 
commanded  Luther  on  his  canonical  obedience  to  refrain 
from  Bible  study.'  It  was  he  who  made  Luther  read  and 
re-read  the  writings  of  Biel,  d'Ailly,  and  Occam,  until  he 
had  committed  to  memory  long  passages ;  and  who  taught 
the  Reformer  to  consider  Occam  "his  dear  Master." 
Nathin  was  a  determined  opponent  of  the  Eeformation 
until  his  death  in  1529;  but  Luther  always  spoke  of  him 
with  respect,  and  said  that  he  was  "  a  Christian  man  in 
spite  of  his  monk's  cowl." 

Luther  had  not  come  to  the  convent  to  study  theo- 
logy; he  had  entered  it  to  save  his  soul.  These  studies 
were  part  of  the  convent  discipline ;  to  engage  in  them, 
part  of  his  vow  of  obedience.  He  worked  hard  at  them, 
and  pleased  his  superiors  greatly  ;  worked  because  he  was  a 
submissive  monk.  They  left  a  deeper  impress  on  him  than 
most  of  his  biographers  have  cared  to  acknowledge.  He 
had  more  of  the  Schoolman  in  him  and  less  of  the  Humanist 
than  any  other  of  the  men  who  stood  in  the  first  line  of 
leaders  in  the  Eeformation  movement.  Some  of  his  later 
doctrines,  and  especially  his  theory  of  the  Sacrament  of  the 
Supper,  came  to  him  from  these  convent  studies  in  d'Ailly 
and  Occam.  But  in  his  one  great  quest — how  to  save  his 
soul,  how  to  win  the  sense  of  God's  pardon — they  were 
more  a  hindrance  than  a  help.  His  teachers  might  be 
Augustinian  Eremites,  but  they  had  not  the  faintest 
knowledge  of  Augustinian  experimental  theology.  They 
belonged  to  the  most  pelagianisiug  school  of  mediaeval 
Scholastic ;  and  their  last  word  always  was  that  man  must 
work  out  his  own  salvation.     Luther  tried  to  work  it  out 

*  In  the  Tischreden  (Preger,  Leipzig,  1888),  i.  27,  tlie  saying  is  attributed 
to  Bartholomseus  Usingen,  who  is  erroneously  called  Luther's  teacher  in  the 
Erfurt  convent.  Usingen  did  not  enter  the  convent  before  1512.  He  was 
a  professor  in  the  University  of  Erfurt,  not  in  the  convent. 

^  N.  Selneccer,  Historia  .  .  .  D.  M.  Lutheri :  "Jussus  est  omissii 
Sacris  Bibliis  ex  obedinntia  legere  scholastica  et  sopliistica  scripta." 


IN   THE    ERFURT    CONVENT  201 

in  the  most  approved  later  mediaeval  ksiiiou,  by  the 
strictest  asceticism.  He  fasted  and  scourged  himself ;  he  , 
practised  all  the  ordinary  forms  of  maceration,  and  invented  \ 
new  ones ;  but  all  to  no  purpose.  For  when  an  awakened 
soul,  as  he  said  long  afterwards,  seeks  to  find  rest  in  work- 
righteousness,  it  stands  on  a  foundation  of  loose  sand  which 
it  feels  running  and  travelling  beneath  it ;  and  it  must  go 
from  one  good  work  to  another  and  to  another,  and  so  on 
without  end.  Luther  was  undergoing  all  unconsciously  the 
experience  of  Augustine,  and  what  tortured  and  terrified  the 
great  African  was  torturing  him.  He  had  learned  that 
man's  goodness  is  not  to  be  measured  by  his  neighbour's 
but  by  God's,  and  that  man's  sin  is  not  to  be  weighed 
against  the  sins  of  his  neighbours,  but  against  the  righteous- 
ness of  God.  His  theological  studies  told  him  that  God's 
pardon  could  be  bad  through  the  Sacrament  of  Penance, 
and  that  the  first  part  of  that  sacrament  was  sorrow  for 
sin.  But  then  came  a  difficulty.  The  older,  and  surely 
the  better  theology,  explained  that  this  godly  sorrow  (con- 
tritio)  must  be  based  on  love  to  God.  Had  he  this  love  ? 
God  ahvays  appeared  to  him  as  an  implacable  Judge, 
inexorably  threatening  punishment  for  the  breaking  of  a  law 
which  it  seemed  impossible  to  keep.  He  had  to  confess  to 
himself  that  he  sometimes  almost  hated  this  arbitrary  Will 
which  the  nominalist  Schoolmen  called  God.  The  more 
modern  theology,  that  taught  by  the  chief  convent  theo- 
logian, John  of  Paltz,  asserted  that  the  sorrow  might  be 
based  on  meaner  motives  {attritio),  and  that  this  attrition 
was  changed  into  contrition  in  the  Sacrament  of  Penance 
itself.  So  Luther  wearied  his  superiors  by  his  continual 
use  of  this  sacrament.  The  slightest  breacli  of  the  most 
trifling  conventual  regulation  was  looked  on  as  a  sin,  and 
had  to  be  confessed  at  once  and  absolution  for  it  received,  / 
until  the  perplexed  lad  was  ordered  to  cease  confession ' 
until  he  had  committed  some  sin  worth  confessing.  His 
brethren  believed  him  to  be  a  miracle  of  piety.  They 
boasted  about  him  in  their  monkish  fashion,  and  in  all  the 
monasteries  around,  and  as  far  away  as  Giimma,the  m'>nks 


202   LUTHER  TO  THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

and  nuns  talked  al)out  the  young  saint  in  the  Erfurt  con- 
vent. Meanwhile  the  "  young  saint "  himself  lived  a  life 
of  mental  anguish,  whispering  to  himself  that  he  was 
"gallows-ripe.*'  Writing  in  1518,  years  after  the  conflict 
was  over,  Luther  tells  us  that  no  pen  could  describe  the 
mental  anguish  he  endured.^  Gleams  of  comfort  came  to 
him,  but  they  were  transient.  The  Master  of  the  Novices 
gave  him  salutary  advice ;  an  aged  brother  gave  him 
momentary  comfort.  John  Staupitz,  the  Vicar-General  of 
the  Congregation,  during  his  visits  to  the  convent  was 
attracted  by  the  traces  of  hidden  conflicts  and  sincere 
endeavour  of  the  young  monk,  with  his  high  cheek-bones, 
emaciated  frame,  gleaming  eyes,  and  looks  of  settled 
despair.  He  tried  to  find  out  his  difficulties.  He  revoked 
Nathin's  order  that  Luther  should  not  read  the  Scriptures. 
He  encouraged  him  to  read  the  Bible ;  he  gave  him  a 
Glossa  Ordinaria  or  conventual  ecclesiastical  commentary, 
where  passages  were  explained  by  quotations  from  eminent 
Church  Fathers,  and  difficulties  were  got  over  by  much 
pious  allegorising;  above  all,  he  urged  him  to  become  a 
good  localis  and  textualis  in  the  Bible,  i.e.  one  who,  when  he 
met  with  difficulties,  did  not  content  himself  with  com- 
mentaries, but  made  collections  of  parallel  passages  for 
himself,  and  found  explanations  of  one  in  the  others.  Still 
this  brought  at  first  little  help.  At  last  Staupitz  saw  the 
young  man's  real  difficulty,  and  gave  hinTreal  and  lasting 
assistance.  He  showed  Luther  that  he  had  been  rightly 
enough  contrasting  man's  sin  and  God's  holiness,  and 
measuring  the  depth  of  the  one  by  the  height  of  the  other ; 
that  he  had  been  following  the  truest  instincts  of  the 
deepest  piety  when  he  had  set  over-against  each  other  the 
righteousness  of  God  and  the  sin  and  helplessness  of  man ; 
but   that  he   had  gone   wrong   when   he    kept   these  two 

*  Modern  Romanists  describe  all  this  as  the  self-torturing  of  an  hysterical 
youth.  They  are  surely  oblivious  to  the  fact  that  the  only  great  German 
mediaeval  Mystic  who  has  been  canonised  by  the  Romish  Church,  Henf 
Suso,  went  through  a  similar  ex[ierience  ;  and  that  these  very  experiences 
were  in  both  cases  looked  on  by  contemporaries  as  the  fruitr  of  a  more  than 
ordinary  piety. 


IN  THE  ERFURT  CONVENT         20S 

thoughts  in  a  permanent  opposition.  He  then  explained 
that,  according  to  God's  promise,  the  righteousness  of  God 
might  become  man's  own  possession  in  and  through  Christ 
Jesus.  God  had  promised  that  man  could  have  fellowship 
with  Him;  all  fellowship  is  founded  on  personal  trust; 
and  trust,  the  personal  trust  of  the  believing  man  on  8 
personal  God  who  has  promised,  gives  man  that  fellowship 
with  God  through  which  all  things  that  belong  to  God  can 
become  his.  Without  this  personal  trust  or  faith,  all 
divine  things,  the  Incarnation  and  Passion  of  the  Saviour, 
the  Word  and  the  Sacraments,  however  true  as  matters  of 
fact,  are  outside  man  and  cannot  be  truly  possessed.  But 
when  man  trusts  God  and  His  promises,  and  when  the 
fellowship,  which  trust  or  faith  always  creates,  is  once 
established,  then  they  can  be  truly  possessed  by  the  man 
who  trusts.  The  just  live  by  their  faith.  These  thoughts, 
acted  upon,  helped  Luther  gradually  to  win  his  way  to 
peace,  and  he  told  Staupitz  long  afterwards  that  it  was 
he  who  had  made  him  see  the  rays  of  light  which  dis- 
pelled the  darkness  of  his  soul.^  In  the  end,  the  vision  of 
the  true  relation  of  the  believing  man  to  God  came  to  him 
suddenly  with  all  the  force  of  a  personal  revelation,  and  the 
storm-tossed  soul  was  at  rest.  The  sudden  enlightenment, 
the  personal  revelation  which  was  to  change  his  whole  life, 
came  to  him  when  he  was  reading  the  Epistle  to  the  Eomans 
in  his  cell.  It  came  to  Paul  when  he  was  riding  on  the 
road  to  Damascus;  to  Augustine  as  he  was  lying  under 
a  fig-tree  in  the  Milan  garden;  to  Francis  as  he  paced 
anxiously  the  flag-stones  of  the  Portiuncula  chapel  on  the 
plain  beneath  Assisi;  to  Suso  as  he  sat  at  table  in  the 
morning.  It  spoke  through  different  words: — -to  Paul, 
"  Why  persecutest  thou  Me  ? " ;  ^  to  Augustine,  "  Put  ye  on 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  make  not  provision  for  the 
flesh ";'3  to  Francis,  "Get  you  no  gold,  nor  silver,  nor 
brass  in  your  purses,  no  wallet  for  your  journey,  neither 
two  coats,  nor  shoes,  nor  staff";*   to  Suso,  "My  son,  if 

*  Eesolutiones,  Preface^  *  Acts  viii,  4. 

»  Eom.  xiu.  14.  ••  Matt.  x.  0. 


204   LUTHER  rO  THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

thou  wilt  bear  My  words."  ^  But  though  the  words  were 
different,  the  personal  revelation,  which  mastered  the  men, 
was  the  same :  That  trust  in  the  All-merciful  God,  who 
has  revealed  Himself  in  Jesus  Christ,  creates  companion- 
ship with  God,  and  that  all  other  things  are  nothing  in 
comparison  with  this  fellowship.  It  was  this  contact  with 
the  Unseen  which  fitted  Luther  for  his  task  as  the  leader 
of  men  in  an  age  which  was  longing  for  a  revival  of  moral 
living  inspired  by  a  fresh  religious  impulse.^ 

It  is  not  certain  how  long  Luther's  protracted  struggle 
lasted.  There  are  indications  that  it  went  on  for  two  years, 
and  that  he  did  not  attain  to  inward  peace  until  shortly 
before  he  was  sent  to  Wittenberg  in  1508.  The  intensity 
and  sincerity  of  the  conflict  marked  him  for  life.  The 
conviction  that  he,  weak  and  sinful  as  he  was,  nevertheless 
lived  in  personal  fellowship  with  the  God  whose  love  he 
was  experiencing,  became  the  one  fundamental  fact  of  life 
on  which  he,  a  human  personality,  could  take  his  stand  aa 
on  a  foundation  of  rock  ;  and  standing  on  it,  feeling  his  own 
strength,  he  could  also  be  a  source  of  strength  to  others. 
Everything  else,  however  venerable  and  sacred  it  might 
once  have  seemed,  might  prove  untrustworthy  without 
hereafter  disturbing  Luther's  religious  life,  provided  only 
this  one  thing  remained  to  him.  For  the  moment,  how- 
ever, nothing  seemed  questionable.     The  inward  change 

1  Prov.  ii.  1. 

*  "  If  we  review  all  the  men  and  women  of  the  West  since  Augustine's 
time,  whom,  for  the  disposition  which  possessed  them,  history  has  designated 
as  eminent  Christians,  we  have  always  the  same  type  ;  we  find  marked  con- 
viction of  sin,  complete  renunciation  of  their  own  strength,  and  trust  in 
grace,  in  the  personal  God  who  is  apprehended  as  the  Merciful  One  in  the 
humility  of  Christ.  The  variations  of  this  frame  of  mind  are  innumerable 
— but  the  fundamental  type  is  the  same.  This  frame  of  mind  is  taught  in 
sermons  and  in  instruction  by  truly  pious  Romanists  and  by  Evangelicals  ; 
in  it  youthful  Christians  are  trained,  and  dogmatics  are  constructed  in 
harmony  with  it.  It  has  always  produced  so  powerful  an  effect,  even  whera 
it  is  only  preached  as  the  experience  of  otliers,  that  he  who  has  come  in  con- 
tact with  it  can  never  forget  it ;  it  accompanies  him  as  a  pillar  of  cloud  by 
day  and  of  fire  by  night ;  he  who  imagines  that  he  has  long  shaken  it  off, 
sees  it  rising  up  suddenly  before  him  again." — Harnack's  History  of  Dogmas 
V.  74  (Eng.  trans.,  London,  1898). 


EARL\    LIFE   AT   WITTENBERG  205 

altered    nothing    external      He    still    believed    that    the 
Church   was    the    "Pope's    House";    he    accepted  all  its 
usages  and  institutions — its  Masses  and  its  relics,  its  in- 
dulgences and  its  pilgrimages,  its  hierarchy  and  its  monastic} 
life.     He  was  still  a  monk  and  believed  in  his  vocation. 

Luther's  theological  studies  were  continued.  He 
devoted  himself  especially  to  Bernard,  in  whose  sermons 
on  the  Song  of  Solomon  he  found  the  same  thoughts  of  the 
relation  of  the  believing  soul  to  God  which  had  given  him 
comfort.  He  began  to  show  himself  a  good  man  of  busi- 
ness with  an  eye  to  the  heart  of  things.  Staupitz  and  his 
chiefs  entrusted  him  with  some  delicate  commissions  on 
behalf  of  the  Order,  and  made  quiet  preparations  for  his 
advancement.  In  1508  he,  with  a  few  other  monks,  was 
sent  from  Erfurt  to  the  smaller  convent  at  Wittenberg,  to 
assist  the  small  University  there. 


§  4.  Luther*s  early  Life  in  Witteiiberg, 

About  the  beginning  of  the  century,  Frederick  the  Wise, 
Elector  of  Saxony  and  head  of  the  Ernestine  branch  of  his 
family,  had  resolved  to  establish  a  University  for  his 
dominions.  Frederick  had  maintained  close  relations  with 
the  Augustinian  Eremites  ever  since  he  had  made  acquaint- 
ance with  them  when  a  schoolboy  at  Grimma,  and  the 
Vicar-General,  John  Staupitz,  along  with  Dr.  Pollich  of 
Mellerstadt,  were  his  chief  advisers.  It  might  almost  be 
said  that  the  new  University  was,  from  the  beginning,  an 
educational  establishment  belonging  to  the  Order  of  monks 
which  Luther  had  joined.  Staupitz  himself  was  one  of  the 
professors,  and  Dean  of  the  Faculty  of  Theology ;  another 
Augustinian  Eremite  was  Dean  of  the  Faculty  of  Arts ;  the 
Patron  Saints  of  the  Order,  the  Blessed  Virgin  and  St. 
Augustine,  were  the  Patron  vSaints  of  the  University; 
St.  Paul  was  the  Patron  Saint  of  the  Faculty  of  Theology, 
and  on  the  day  of  his  conversion  there  was  a  special 
celebration  of  the  Mass  with  a  sermon,  at  which  the  Rector 
(Dr.  Pollich)  and  the  whole  teaching  staff  were  present. 


206   LUTHER  TO  THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

The  University  was  poorly  endowed.  Electoral  Saxonj 
was  not  a  rich  principality  ;  some  mining  iodustry  did  exist 
in  the  south  end,  and  Zwickau  was  the  centre  of  a  great 
weaving  trade ;  but  the  great  proportion  of  the  inhabitants, 
whether  of  villages  or  towns,  subsisted  on  agriculture  of  a 
poor  kind.  There  was  not  much  money  at  the  Electoral 
court.  A  sum  got  from  the  sale  of  Indulgences  some  years 
before,  which  Frederick  had  not  allowed  to  leave  the 
country,  served  to  make  a  beginning.  The  prebends 
attached  to  the  Church  of  All  Saints  (the  Castle  Church) 
supplied  the  salaries  of  some  professors ;  the  others  were 
Augustinian  Eremites,  who  gave  their  services  gratuitously. 

The  town  of  Wittenberg  was  more  like  a  large  village 
than  the  capital  of  a  principality.  In  1513  it  only  con- 
tained 3000  inhabitants  and  356  rateable  houses.  The 
houses  were  for  the  most  part  mean  wooden  dwellings, 
roughly  plastered  with  clay.  The  town  lay  in  the  very 
centre  of  Germany,  but  it  was  far  from  any  of  the  great 
trade  routes ;  the  inhabitants  had  a  good  deal  of  Wendish 
blood  in  their  veins,  and  were  inclined  to  be  sluggish  and 
intemperata  The  environs  were  not  picturesque,  and  the 
surrounding  country  had  a  poor  soil.  Altogether  it  was 
scarcely  the  place  for  a  University.  Imperial  privileges 
were  obtained  from  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  and  the 
University  was  opened  on  the  18th  of  October  1502. 

One  or  two  eminent  teachers  had  been  induced  to  come 
to  the  new  University.  Staupitz  collected  promising  young 
monks  from  many  convents  of  his  Order  and  enrolled  them 
as  students,  and  the  University  entered  416  names  on  its 
books  during  its  first  year.  This  success  seems  to  have 
been  somewhat  artificial,  for  the  numbers  gradually  declined 
to  56  in  the  summer  session  of  1505.  Staupitz,  however, 
encouraged  Frederick  to  persevere. 

It  was  in  the  interests  of  the  young  University  that 
Luther  and  a  band  of  brother  monks  were  sent  from  Erfurt 
to  the  Wittenberg  convent.  There  he  was  set  to  teach  the 
Dialectic  and  Physics  of  Aristotle, — a  hateful  task, — but 
whether  to  the  monks  in  the  convent  or  in  the  University 


EARLY    LIFE    AT    WITTENBERG  207 

it  is  impossible  to  say.  All  the  while  Staupitz  urged  him 
to  study  theology  in  order  to  teach  it.  It  was  then  that 
Luther  began  his  systematic  study  of  Augustine.  He  also 
began  to  preach.  His  first  sermons  were  delivered  in  an 
old  chapel,  30  feet  long  and  20  feet  wide,  built  of  wood 
plastered  over  with  clay.  He  preached  to  the  monks. 
Dr.  Pollich,  the  Eector,  went  sometimes  to  hear  him,  and 
spoke  to  the  Elector  of  the  young  monk  with  piercing  eyes 
and  strange  fancies  in  his  head. 

His  work  was  interrupted  by  a  command  to  go  to  Rome 
on  business  of  his  Order  (autumn  1511).  His  selection 
was  a  great  honour,  and  Luther  felt  it  to  be  so ;  but  it 
may  be  questioned  whether  he  did  not  think  more  of 
the  fact  that  he  would  visit  the  Holy  City  as  a  devout 
pilgrim,  and  be  able  to  avail  himself  of  the  spiritual 
privileges  which  he  believed  were  to  be  found  there. 
When  he  got  to  the  end  of  his  journey  and  first  caught  a 
glimpse  of  the  city,  he  raised  his  hands  in  an  ecstasy,  ex- 
claiming, "  I  greet  thee,  thou  Holy  Eome,  thrice  holy  from 
the  blood  of  the  martyrs." 

When  his  official  work  was  done  he  set  about  seeing 
the  Holy  City  with  the  devotion  of  a  pilgrim.  He  visited 
all  the  famous  shrines,  especially  those  to  which  Indulg- 
ences were  attached.  He  listened  reverently  to  all  the 
accounts  given  of  the  relics  which  were  exhibited  to 
the  pilgrims,  and  believed  in  all  the  tales  told  him.  He 
thought  that  if  his  parents  had  been  dead  he  could  have 
assured  them  against  Purgatory  by  saying  Masses  in  certain 
chapels.  Only  once,  it  is  said,  his  soul  showed  revolt.  He 
was  slowly  climbing  on  his  knees  the  Scala  Santa  (really  a 
mediaeval  staircase),  said  to  have  been  the  stone  steps 
leading  up  to  Pilate's  house  in  Jerusalem,  once  trodden  by 
the  feet  of  our  Lord ;  when  half-way  up  the  thought  came 
into  his  mind,  The  just  shall  live  hy  his  faith ;  he  stood  up- 
right and  walked  slowly  down.  He  saw,  as  thousands 
of  pious  German  pilgrims  had  done  before  his  time,  the 
moral  corruptions  which  disgraced  the  Holy  City — infidel 
priests  who  scoffed  at  the  sacred  mysteries  they  performed, 


208   LUTHER  TO  THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

and  princes  of  the  Church  who  lived  in  open  sin.  He  saw 
and  loathed  the  moral  degradation,  and  the  scenes  imprinted 
themselves  on  his  memory;  but  his  home  and  cloister 
training  enabled  him,  for  the  time  being,  in  spite  of  the 
loathing,  to  revel  in  the  memorials  of  the  old  heroic 
martyrs,  and  to  look  on  their  relics  as  storehouses  of  divine 
graca  In  later  days  it  was  the  memories  of  the  vices  of 
the  Roman  Court  that  helped  him  to  harden  his  heart 
against  the  sentiment  wliich  surrounded  the  Holy  City. 

When  Luther  returned  to  Wittenberg  in  the  early 
summer  of  1512,  his  Vicar-General  sent  him  to  Erfurt  to 
complete  his  training  for  the  doctorate  in  theology.  He 
graduated  as  Doctor  of  the  Holy  Scripture,  took  the 
Wittenberg  Doctor's  oath  to  defend  the  evangelical  truth 
vigorously  (viriliter),  was  made  a  member  of  the  Witten- 
berg Senate,  and  three  weeks  later  succeeded  Staupitz  as 
Professor  of  Theology. 

Luther  was  still  a  genuine  monk,  with  no  doubt  of  his 
vocation.  He  became  sub-prior  of  the  Wittenberg  convent 
in  1512,  and  was  made  the  District  Vicar  over  the  eleven 
convents  in  Meissen  and  Thuringia  in  1515.  But  that  side 
of  his  life  may  be  passed  over.  It  is  his  theological  work 
as  professor  in  Wittenberg  University  that  is  important  for 
his  career  as  a  reformer. 


§  5.  Lut?ier*s  early  Lectures  in  Theology. 

From  the  beginning  his  lectures  on  theology  differed 
from  those  ordinarily  given,  but  not  because  he  had  any 
theological  opinions  at  variance  with  those  of  his  old 
teachers  at  Erfurt.  No  one  attributed  any  sort  of  heretical 
views  to  the  young  Wittenberg  professor.  His  mind  was 
intensely  practical,  and  he  believed  that  theology  might  be 
made  useful  to  guide  men  to  find  the  grace  of  God  and  to 
tell  them  how,  having  acquired  through  trust  a  sense  of 
fellowship  with  God,  they  could  persevere  in  a  life  of 
joyous  obedience  to  God  and  His  commandments.  The 
Scholastic  theologians   of    Erfurt   and  elsewhere  did   not 


Luther's  theological  lectures  209 

look  on  theology  as  a  practical  discipline  of  this  kind. 
Luther  thought  that  theology  ought  to  discuss  such 
matters,  and  he  knew  that  his  main  interest  in  theology 
lay  on  this  practical  side.  Besides,  as  he  has  told  us, 
he  regarded  himself  as  specially  set  apart  to  lecture  on 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  So,  like  John  Colet,  he  began  by 
expounding  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  and  the  Psalms. 

Luther  never  knew  much  Hebrew,  and  he  used  the 
Vulgate  in  his  prelections.  He  had  a  huge  widely  printed 
volume  on  his  desk,  and  wrote  out  the  heads  of  his  lectures 
between  the  printed  lines.  Some  of  the  pages  still  survive 
in  the  Wolfenbiittel  Library,  and  can  be  studied.^ 

He  made  some  use  of  the  commentaries  of  Nicholas  de 
Lyra,  but  got  most  assistance  from  passages  in  Augustine, 
Bernard,  and  Gerson,^  which  dealt  with  practical  religion,' 

*  The  Wolfenbiittel  Library  contains  the  Psalter  (Vulgate)  used  by 
Luther  in  lecturing  on  the  Psalms.  The  book  was  priuted  at  "Wittenberg 
in  1513  by  John  Gronenberg,  and  contains  Luther's  notes  written  on  the 
margin  and  between  the  printed  lines. 

*  Luther's  indebtedness  to  Gerson  (Jean  Charlier,  born  in  1363  at  Gerson, 
a  hamlet  near  Rethel  in  the  Ardennes,  believed  by  some  to  be  the  author  of 
the  De  Imitatione  Christi)  has  not  been  sufficiently  noticed.  It  may  be 
partially  estimated  by  Luther's  own  statement  that  most  experimental 
divines,  including  Augustine,  when  dealing  with  the  struggle  of  the 
awakened  soul,  lay  most  stress  on  that  part  of  the  conflict  which  comes 
from  temptations  of  the  flesh  ;  Gerson  confines  himself  to  those  which 
are  purely  spiritual.  Luther,  during  his  soul-anguish  in  the  convent,  was 
a  young  monk  who  had  lived  a  humanly  stainless  life,  sans  peur  et  sans 
reproche ;  Augustine,  a  middle-aged  professor  of  rhetoric,  had  been  living 
*or  years  in  a  state  of  sinful  concubinage. 

'  It  is  commonly  said  that  Luther  made  use  of  the  rrtystical  passages 
found  in  these  and  other  authors  ;  but  mystical  is  a  vtry  ambiguous  word. 
It  is  continually  used  to  express  personal  or  individual  piety  in  general ;  or 
this  personal  religion  as  opposed  to  that  religious  life  which  is  consciously 
lived  within  the  fellowship  of  men  called  the  Church,  provided  with  th.o 
external  means  of  grace.  These  are,  however,  very  loose  uses  of  the  word. 
The  fundamental  problem,  even  in  Christian  Mysticism,  appears  to  me  to  be 
how  to  bridge  the  gulf  between  the  creatm-e  and  tlie  Creator,  while  the 
problem  in  Reformation  theology  is  how  to  span  tlie  chasm  between  the 
sinfid  man  and  the  righteous  God.  Hence  in  mysticism  the  tendnicy  ia 
always  to  regard  sin  as  imperfection,  while  in  the  Reformation  theology  sin 
ia  always  the  power  of  evil  and  invariably  includes  the  thought  of  guilt. 
Luther  was  no  mystic  in  the  sense  of  desiring  to  be  lost  in  God  ;  he  wished 
to  be  saved  through  Christ, 
14* 


210   LUTHER  TO  THE  INDULGKNCE  CONTROVERSY 

His  lectures  were  experimental.  He  started  with  the  fact 
of  man's  sin,  the  possibility  of  reaching  a  sense  of  pardon 
and  of  fellowship  with  God  through  trust  in  His  promises. 
From  the  beginning  we  find  in  the  germ  what  grew  to  be 
the  main  thoughts  in  the  later  Lutheran  theology.  Men 
are  redeemed  apart  from  any  merits  of  their  own ;  God's 
grace  is  really  His  mercy  revealed  in  the  mission  and  work 
of  Christ ;  it  has  to  do  with  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  is 
the  fulfilment  of  His  promises ;  man's  faith  is  trust  in  the 
historical  work  of  Christ  and  in  the  verity  of  God.  These 
thoughts  were  for  the  most  part  all  expressed  in  the  formal 
language  of  the  Scholastic  Theology  of  the  day.  They  grew 
in  clearness,  and  took  shape  in  a  series  of  propositions 
which  formed  the  common  basis  of  his  teaching :  man  wins 
pardon  through  the  free  grace  of  God :  when  man  lays 
hold  on  God's  promise  of  pardon  he  becomes  a  new 
creature ;  this  sense  of  pardon  is  the  beginning  of  a 
new  life  of  sanctification ;  the  life  of  faith  is  Christianity 
on  its  inward  side ;  the  contrast  between  the  law  and  the 
gospel  is  something  fundamental:  there  is  a  real  distinc- 
tion between  the  outward  and  visible  Church  and  the  ideal 
Church,  which  latter  is  to  be  described  by  its  spiritual  and 
moral  relations  to  God  after  the  manner  of  Augustine. 
All  these  thoughts  simply  pushed  aside  the  ordinary 
theology  as  taught  in  the  schools  without  staying  to 
criticise  it. 

In  the  years  1515  and  1516,  which  bear  traces  of 
a  more  thoroughgoing  study,  of  Augustine  and  of  the 
German  mediaeval  Mystics,  Luther  began  to  find  that 
he  could  not  express  the  thoughts  he  desired  to  convey 
in  the  ordinary  language  of  Scholastic  Theology,  and 
that  its  phrases  suggested  ideas  other  than  those  he 
wished  to  set  forth.  He  tried  to  find  another  set  of 
expressions.  It  is  characteristic  of  Luther's  conservatism, 
that  in  theological  phraseology,  as  afterwards  in  eccle- 
siastical institutions  and  ceremonies,  he  preferred  to  retain 
what  had  been  in  use  provided  only  he  could  put  his 
own  evangelical  meaning   into   it  in   a  not  too  arbitrary 


LUTHER'S  THEOLOGICAL  LECTURES      211 

way.'  Having  found  that  the  Scholastic  phraseology 
did  not  always  suit  his  purpose,  he  turned  to  the  popular 
mystical  authors,  and  discovered  there  a  rich  store  of 
phrases  in  which  he  could  express  his  ideas  of  the  im- 
perfection of  man  towards  what  is  good.  Along  with 
this  change  in  language,  and  related  to  it,  we  find  evi- 
dence that  Luther  was  beginning  to  think  less  highly 
of  the  monastic  life  with  its  external  renunciations.  The 
thought  of  predestination,  meaning  by  that  not  an  abstract 
metaphysical  category,  biit  the  conception  that  the  whole 
believer's  life,  and  what  it  involved,  depended  in  the 
last  resort  on  God  and  not  on  man,  came  more  and  more 
into  the  foreground.  Still  there  does  not  seem  any 
disposition  to  criticise  or  to  repudiate  the  current  theology 
of  the  day. 

The  earliest  traces  of  conscious  opposition  appeared 
about  the  middle  of  1516,  and  characteristically  on  the 
practical  and  not  on  the  speculative  side  of  theology.  They 
began  in  a  sermon  on  Indulgences,  preached  in  July  1516. 
Once  begun,  the  breach  widened  until  Luther  could  contrast 
"  our  theology  "  *  (the  theology  taught  by  Luther  and  his 
colleagues  at  Wittenberg)  with  what  was  taught  elsewhere, 
and  notably  at  Erfurt.  The  former  represented  Augustine 
and  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  the  latter  was  founded  on 
Aristotle.  In  September  1517  he  raised  the  standard  of 
theological  revolt,  and  wrote  directly  against  the  "  Scholastic 
Theology  " ;  he  declared  that  it  was  Pelagian  at  heart,  and 
buried  out  of  sight  the  Augustinian  doctrines  of  grace ;  he 
lamented  the  fact  that  it  neglected  to  teach  the  supreme 
value  of   faith   and  of   inward  righteousness;  that  it  en- 

^  Of  course,  Luther's  intense  individuality  appeared  in  hia  language  from 
the  first.  Take  as  an  example  a  note  on  Ps.  Ixxxiv.  4 :  "As  the  meadow 
is  to  the  cow,  the  house  to  the  man,  the  nest  to  the  bird,  the  rock  to  the 
chamois,  and  the  atream  to  the  fish,  so  is  the  Holy  Scripture  to  the  believing 
soul." 

2  The  expression  is  interesting,  because  it  shows  that  Luther's  influence 
had  made  at  least  two  of  his  colleagues  change  their  views.  Nicholaa 
Amsdorf  ami  Andrew  Bodenstein  of  Carlstadt  had  come  to  Wittenberg  to 
teach  Scholastic  Theology,  and  Amsdorf  had  made  a  great  name  for  himself 
»s  an  exponent  of  the  older  type  of  that  theology. 


212   LUTHER  TO  THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

couraged  men  to  seek  escape  from  what  was  due  for  sin  b^; 
means  of  Indulgences,  instead  of  exhorting  them  to  practise 
the  inward  repentance  which  belongs  to  every  genuine 
Christian  life. 

It  was  at  this  interesting  stage  of  his  own  religious 
development  that  Luther  felt  himself  forced  to  oppose 
publicly  the  sale  of  Indulgences  in  Germany. 

By  the  year  1517,  Luther  had  become  a  power  in 
Wittenberg  both  as  a  preacher  and  as  a  teacher.  He 
had  become  the  preacher  in  the  town  church,  from  whose 
pulpit  he  delivered  many  sermons  every  week,  taking  in- 
finite pains  to  make  himself  understood  by  the  "  raw 
Saxons."  He  became  a  great  preacher,  and,  like  all  great 
preachers,  he  denounced  prevalent  sins,  and  bewailed  the 
low  standard  of  morals  set  before  the  people  by  the  higher 
ecclesiastical  authorities ;  he  said  that  religion  was  not  an 
easy  thing ;  that  it  did  not  consist  in  the  decent  perform- 
ance of  external  ceremonies ;  that  the  sense  of  sin,  the 
experience  of  the  grace  of  God,  and  the  fear  of  God  and 
the  overcoming  of  that  fear  through  the  love  of  God,  were 
all  continuous  experiences. 

His  exegetical  lectures  seemed  like  a  rediscovery  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  Grave  burghers  of  Wittenberg 
matriculated  as  students  in  order  to  hear  them.  The 
fame  of  the  lecturer  spread,  and  students  from  all  parts 
of  Germany  crowded  to  the  small  remote  University,  until 
the  Elector  became  proud  of  his  seat  of  learning  and  of 
the  man  who  had  made  it  prosper. 

Such  a  man  could  not  keep  silent  when  he  saw  what 
he  believed  to  be  a  grave  source  of  moral  evil  approachiog 
the  people  whose  souls  God  had  given  him  in  charge ;  and 
this  is  how  Luther  came  to  be  a  Eeformer. 

Up  to  this  time  he  had  been  an  obedient  monk,  doing 
diligently  the  work  given  him,  highly  esteemed  by  his 
superiors,  fulfilling  the  expectations  of  his  Vicar-General, 
and  recognised  by  all  as  a  quiet  and  eminently  pious  man. 
He  had  a  strong,  simple  character,  with  nothing  of  the 
quixotic  about  him.     Of  course  he  saw  the  degradation  of 


THE   INDULGENCE-SELLER  213 

much  of  the  religious  life  of  the  times,  and  had  attended 
at  least  one  meeting  where  those  present  discussed  plans  of 
reformation.  He  had  then  (at  Leitzkau  in  1512)  declared 
that  every  true  reformation  must  begin  with  individual 
men,  that  it  must  reveal  itself  in  a  regenerate  heart  aflame 
with  faith  kindled  by  the  preaching  of  a  pure  gospel. 

§  6.  The  Indulgence-seller, 

What  drew  Luther  from  his  retirement  was  an  Indul- 
gence proclaimed  by  Pope  Leo  x.,  farmed  by  Albert  of 
Brandenburg,  the  Archbishop  of  Mainz,  and  preached  by 
John  Tetzel,  a  Dominican  monk,  who  had  been  commis- 
sioned by  Albert  to  sell  for  him  the  Papal  Letters,  as  the 
Indulgence  tickets  were  called.  It  had  been  announced 
that  the  money  raised  by  the  sales  would  be  used  to  build 
the  Basilica  of  St.  Peter  to  be  a  tomb  worthy  of  the  great 
Apostle,  who  rested,  it  was  said,  in  a  Eoman  grave. 

The  Indulgence-seller  had  usually  a  magnificent  recep- 
tion when  he  entered  a  German  town.  Frederick  Mecum 
(Myconius),  who  was  an  eye-witness,  thus  describes  the  en- 
trance of  Tetzel  into  the  town  of  Annaberg  in  Ducal  Saxony : 

"  When  the  Commissary  or  Indulgence-seller  approached 
the  town,  the  Bull  (proclaiming  the  Indulgence)  was  carried 
before  him  on  a  cloth  of  velvet  and  gold,  and  all  the  priests 
and  monks,  the  town  council,  the  schoolmasters  and  their 
scholars,  and  all  the  men  and  women  went  out  to  meet  him 
with  banners  and  candles  and  songs,  forming  a  great  pro- 
cession ;  then  all  the  bells  ringing  and  all  the  organs  playing, 
they  accompanied  him  to  the  principal  church ;  a  red  cross 
was  set  up  in  the  midst  of  the  church,  and  the  Pope's  banner 
was  displayed ;  in  short,  one  might  think  they  were  receiving 
God  Himself." 

The  Commissary  then  preached  a  sermon  extolling  the 
Indulgence,  declaring  that  "  the  gate  of  heaven  was  open,*' 
and  that  the  sales  would  begin. 

Many  German  princes  had  no  great  love  for  the 
Indulgence-sellers,  and  Frederick,  the  Elector  of   Saxony, 


214   LUTHER  TO  THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

had  prohibited  Tetzel  from  entering  his  territories.  But 
the  lands  of  Ernestine  (Electoral)  and  Albertine  (Ducal) 
Saxony  were  so  mixed  up  that  it  was  easy  for  the  Com- 
missary to  command  the  whole  population  of  Electoral 
Saxony  without  actually  crossing  the  frontier.  The  "  Eed 
Cross  "  had  been  set  up  in  Zerbst  in  Ducal  Saxony  a  few 
miles  to  the  west,  and  at  Jiiterbogk  in  the  territory  of 
Magdeburg  a  few  miles  to  the  east  of  Wittenberg,  and 
people  had  gone  from  the  town  to  buy  the  Indulgence. 
Luther  believed  that  the  sales  were  injurious  to  the  moral 
and  religious  life  of  his  townsmen ;  the  reports  of  the 
sermons  and  addresses  of  the  Indulgence-seller  which 
reached  him  appeared  to  contain  what  he  believed  to  be 
both  lies  and  blasphemies.  He  secured  a  copy  of  the 
letter  of  recommendation  given  by  the  Archbishop  to  his 
Commissary,  and  his  indignation  grew  stronger.  Still  it 
was  only  after  much  hesitation,  after  many  of  his  friends 
had  urged  him  to  interfere,  and  in  deep  distress  of  mind, 
that  he  resolved  to  protest.  When  he  had  determined  to 
do  something  he  went  about  the  matter  with  a  mixture  of 
caution  and  courage  which  were  characteristic  of  the  man. 
The  Church  of  All  Saints  (the  Castle  Church)  in 
Wittenberg  had  always  been  intimately  connected  with 
the  University ;  its  prebendaries  were  professors ;  its  doors 
were  used  as  a  board  on  which  to  publish  important 
academic  documents ;  and  notices  of  public  academic  "  dis- 
putations," common  enough  at  the  time,  had  frequently 
appeared  there.  The  day  of  the  year  which  drew  the 
largest  concourse  of  townsmen  and  strangers  to  the  church 
was  All  Saints'  Day,  the  first  of  November.  It  was  the 
anniversary  of  the  consecration  of  the  building,  and  was 
commemorated  by  a  prolonged  series  of  services.  The  Elector 
Frederick  was  a  great  collector  of  relics,  and  had  stored 
his  collection  in  the  church.^     He  had  also  procured  an 

'  An  illustrated  catalogue  of  Frederick's  collection  of  relics  was  prepared 
by  Lucas  Cranach,  and  published  under  the  title,  Wittenherger  Heilig' 
ihumsbuch  vom  Jahre  1609.  It  has  been  reprinted  by  G.  Hirth  of  Munich  in 
his  Liebhaber-Bibliothek  alter  Illustratoren  in  Facsimile- Eejjroduktion^  No.  vi, 


LUTHER*S   PROTEST  215 

Indulgence  to  benefit  all  who  came  to  attend  the  anni- 
versary services  and  look  at  the  relics. 
•;  On  All  Saints'  Day,  Luther  nailed  his  Ninety-five  Theses 
to  the  door  of  the  church.  It  was  a  strictly  academic  pro- 
ceeding. The  Professor  of  Theology  in  Wittenberg,  wishing 
to  elucidate  the  truth,  offered  to  discuss,  either  by  speech 
or  by  writing,  the  matter  of  Indulgences.^  He  put  forth 
ninety-five  propositions  or  heads  of  discussion  which  he 
proposed  to  maintain.  Academic  etiquette  was  strictly 
preserved ;  the  subject,  judged  by  the  numberless  books 
which  had  been  written  on  it,  and  the  variety  of  opinions 
expressed,  was  eminently  suitable  for  debate ;  the  Theses 
were  offered  as  subjects  of  debate ;  and  the  author,  accord- 
ing to  the  usage  of  the  time  in  such  cases,  was  not  sup- 
posed to  be  definitely  committed  to  the  opinions  expressed. 
The  Theses,  however,  differed  from  most  programmes 
of  academic  discussions  in  this,  that  everyone  wanted  to 
read  them.  A  duplicate  was  made  in  German.  Copies 
of  the  Latin  original  and  the  translation  were  sent  to  the 
University  printing-house,  and  the  presses  could  not  throw 
them  off  fast  enough  to  meet  the  demand  which  came  from 
all  parts  of  Germany. 

*  "Amore  et  studio  elucidandse  veritatis  hsec  subscripta  disputabuntur 
Wittenbergse,  prsesidente  R.  P.  Martino  Lutther,  artium  et  sacrae  theologise 
magistro  eiusdemque  ibidem  lectore  ordinario.  Quare  petit,  ut  qui  non 
possunt  verbis  prsesentes  uobiscum  diseeptare,  agant  id  Uteris  absentes.  In 
Bomine  Domim  nostri  Hiesu  Christi.    Amen.** 


CHAPTER   II. 

FKOM  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  INDULGENCE 
CONTROVERSY  TO  THE  DIET  OF  WORMS.* 

§  1.   The  Theory  and  Practice  of  Indulgences  in  ihe 
Sixteenth  Century. 

The  practice  of  Indulgences  pervaded  the  whole  penitential 
system  of  the  later  mediaeval  Church,  and  had  done  so 
from  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Its  begin- 
nings go  back  a  thousand  years  before  Luther's  time. 

In  the  ancient  Church,  lapse  into  serious  sin  involved 
separation  from  the  Christian  fellowship,  and  readmission  to 
communion  was  only  to  be  had  by  public  confession  made  in 
presence  of  the  whole  congregation,  and  by  the  manifestation 
of  a  true  repentance  in  performing   certain  satisfactions^ 

*  SouECES :  Thomas  Aquinas,  Summa  Theologice,  Supplementum  Tertice 
Partis,  Qusestiones  xxv.-xxvii. ;  Alexander  of  Hales,  Summa  Theologice,  iv.; 
Bonaventura,  Opera  Omnia ;  In  Librum  Quartum  Sententiarum,  dist.  xx. ; 
vol.  V.  264  ff.  (Moguntiae,  1609);  Denzinger,  Enchiridion  Symholorum  et 
Definitionum,  quce  de  rebus  fidei  et  morum  a  conciliis  oscumenieis  et  summis 
pontificibus  emanarunt,  9th  ed.  (Wiirzburg,  1900),  p.  175 ;  Kohler,  Docu- 
menta  zum  Ahlassstreit  von  1517  (Tubingen,  1902). 

Later  Books:  F.  Beringer  (See.  Jes.),  Der  Ahlass,  sein  Wesen  und 
Gehrauch,  12th  ed.  (Paderborn,  1898);  Bouvier,  Treatise  on  Indulgences 
(London,  1848) ;  Lea,  A  History  of  Auricular  Confession  and  Indulgence  in 
the  Latin  Churchy  3  vols,  (Philadelphia,  1896) ;  Brieger,  Das  Wesen  des 
Ablasses  am  Ausgange  des  Mittelalters  (Leipzig,  1897) ;  Harnack,  History 
of  Dogma,  vi.  pp.  243-270;  Gotz,  "Studien  zur  Geschichte  des  Buss- 
sacraments"  in  Zeitschrift  filr  Kirchengeschichte,  xv.  321  ff.,  xvi.  541  ff. ; 
Schneider,  Der  Ablass  (1881)  ;  Cambridge  Modern  History,  ii.  iv. 

'  The  use  of  the  word  satisfaction  to  denote  an  outward  sign  of  sorrow  for 
sin  which  was  supposed  to  be  well-pleasing  to  God  and  to  afford  reasonable 
ground  for  the  congregation  restoring  a  lapsed  member,  is  very  old — much 
older  than  the  use  of  the  word  to  denote  the  work  of  Christ.  It  is  found  as 
early  as  the  time  of  Tertullian  and  Cyprian. 

216 


INDULGENCES  217 

such  as  the  manumission  of  slaves,  prolonged  fasting 
extensive  almsgiving,  etc.  These  satisfactions  were  the 
open  signs  of  heartfelt  sorrow,  and  were  regarded  as  at 
once  well-pleasing  to  God  and  evidence  to  the  Christian 
community  that  the  penitent  had  true  repentance,  and 
might  be  received  back  again  into  their  midst.  The  con- 
fession was  made  to  the  whole  congregation ;  the  amount  of 
satis/action  deemed  necessary  was  estimated  by  the  con- 
gregation, and  readmission  was  also  dependent  on  the  will 
of  the  whole  congregation.  It  often  happened  that  these 
satisfactions  were  mitigated  or  exchanged  for  others.  The 
penitent  might  fall  sick,  and  the  fasting  which  had  been 
prescribed  could  not  be  insisted  upon  without  danger  of 
death ;  in  such  a  case  the  external  sign  of  sorrow  which 
had  been  demanded  might  be  exchanged  for  another.  Or 
it  might  happen  that  the  community  became  convinced  of 
the  sincerity  of  the  repentance  without  insisting  that  the 
whole  of  the  prescribed  satisfaction  need  be  performed.^ 
These  exchanges  and  initigations  of  satisfactions  were  the 
small  beginnings  of  the  later  system  of  Indulgences. 

In  course  of  time  the  public  confession  of  sins  made 
to  the  whole  congregation  was  exchanged  for  a  private 
confession  made  to  the  priest,  and  instead  of  the  public 
satisfaction  imposed  by  the  whole  congregation,  it  was  left 
to  the  priest  to  enjoin  a  satisfaction  or  external  sign  of 

*  Tertullian  was  no  believer  in  any  indulgence  shown  to  penitent  sinners, 
and  his  account  of  the  way  in  which  penitents  appeared  before  the  congrega. 
tion  to  ask  for  a  remission  or  mitigation  of  the  ecclesiastical  sentence  pro- 
nounced against  them  is  doubtless  a  caricature,  but  it  may  be  taken  as  a  not 
unfair  description  of  what  must  have  frequently  taken  place  :  **You  intro- 
duce into  the  Church  tlie  penitent  adulterer  for  the  purpose  of  melting  the 
brotherhood  by  his  supplications.  You  lead  him  into  the  midst,  clad  in 
sackcloth,  covered  with  ashes,  a  compound  of  disgrace  and  horror.  He 
])rostrates  himself  before  the  widows,  before  the  elders,  suing  for  the  tears 
of  all ;  he  seizes  the  edges  of  their  garments,  he  clasps  their  knees,  he  kisses 
tlie  prints  of  their  feet.  Meanwhile  you  harangue  the  people  and  excite 
their  pity  for  the  sad  lot  of  the  penitent.  Good  pastor,  blessed  father  that 
you  are,  you  describe  the  coming  back  of  your  goat  in  recounting  the 
parable  of  the  lost  sheep.  And  in  case  your  ewe  lamb  may  take  another 
leap  out  of  the  fold  .  .  .  you  fill  all  the  rest  of  the  flock  with  apprehension 
at  the  very  moment  of  granting  indulgence." — {De  PudicUia,  13.) 


218       THE  INDULGEXCE  CONTROVERSY 

sorrow  which  he  helieved  was  appropriate  to  the  sin 
committed  and  confessed.  The  substitution  of  a  private 
confession  to  the  priest  for  a  public  confession  made  to  the 
whole  congregation,  enlarged  the  circle  of  sins  confessed, 
The  secret  sins  of  the  heart  whose  presence  could  be  elicited 
by  the  questions  of  the  confessor  were  added  to  the  open 
s?ns  seen  of  men.  The  circle  of  satisfactions  was  also 
widened  in  a  corresponding  fashion. 

When  the  imposition  of  satisfactions  was  left  in  the 
hands  of  the  priest,  it  was  felt  necessary  to  provide  some 
check  against  the  arbitrariness  which  could  not  fail  to 
result.  So  books  were  published  containing  lists  of  sins 
with  the  corresponding  appropriate  satisfactions  which 
ought  to  be  demanded  from  the  penitents.  If  it  be  re- 
membered that  some  of  the  sins  mentioned  were  very 
heinous  (murders,  incests,  outrages  of  all  kinds),  it  is  not 
surprising  that  the  appropriate  satisfactions  or  penances,  as 
they  came  to  be  called,  were  very  severe  in  some  cases,  and 
extended  over  a  course  of  years.  From  the  seventh  cen- 
tury there  arose  a  practice  of  commuting  satisfactions  or 
penances.  A  penance  of  several  years'  practice  of  fasting 
might  be  commuted  into  saying  so  many  prayers  or  psalms, 
into  giving  a  definite  amount  of  alms,  or  even  into  a  money 
fine — and  in  this  last  case  the  analogy  of  the  Wehrgeld 
of  the  Germanic  tribal  codes  was  frequently  followed.^ 
These  customary  commutations  were  frequently  inserted  in 
the  Penitentiaries  or  books  of  discipline.  This  new  custom 
commonly  took  the  form  that  the  penitent,  who  visited  a 
certain  church  on  a  prescribed  day  and  gave  a  contribution 
to  its  funds,  had  the  penance,  which  had  been  imposed 
upon  him  by  the  priest  in  the  ordinary  course  of  discipline, 
shortened  by  one-seventh,  one-third,  one-half,  as  the  case 
,  might  be.  This  was  in  every  case  the  commutation  or 
relaxation  of  the  penance  or  outward  sign  of  sorrow  which 

*  In  one  book  of  discipline  a  man  who  has  committed  certain  sins  is 
ordered  either  to  go  on  pilgrimage  for  ten  years,  or  to  live  on  bread  and 
water  for  two  years,  or  to  pay  12s.  a  year.  Detailed  information  may  be 
found  in  Schmitz,  Die  Bussliicher  und  die  Bussdisziplin  der  Kirche, 


INDULGENCES  219 

liad  been  imposed  accordiug  to  the  regulations  of  the 
Cliiirch,  laid  down  in  the  Penitentiaries  (relaxatio  de  injuncta 
panitcntia).  This  was  tlie  real  origin  of  Indulgences,  and 
tliese  earliest  examples  were  invariably  a  relaxation  of 
ecclesiastical  penalties  which  had  been  imposed  according 
to  the  regular  custom  in  cases  of  discipline.  It  will  be 
seen  that  Luther  expressly  excluded  this  kind  of  Indulgence 
from  his  attack.  He  declared  that  what  the  Church  had 
a  right  to  impose,  it  had  a  right  to  relax.  It  was  at  first 
believed  that  this  right  to  relax  or  commute  imposed 
penances  was  in  the  hands  of  the  priests  who  had  charge 
of  the  discipline  of  the  members  of  the  Church ;  but  the 
abuses  of  the  system  by  the  priests  ended  by  placing  the 
power  to  grant  Indulgences  in  the  hands  of  the  bishops, 
and  they  used  the  money  procured  in  building  many  of  the 
great  mediaeval  cathedrals.  Episcopal  abuse  of  Indulgences 
led  to  their  being  reserved  for  the  Popes. 

Three  conceptions,  all  of  which  belong  to  the  begin- 
ning~of  the  thirteenth  century,  combined  to  effect  a 
great  change  on  this  old  and  simple  idea  of  Indulgences. 
These  were — (1)  the  formulation  of  the  thought  of  a 
treasury  of  merits  {thesaurus  meritoriim) ;  (2)  the  change 
of  the  institution  into  the  Sacrament  of  Penance ;  and 
(3)  the  distinction  between  attrition  and  contrition  in  the 
thought  of  the  kind  of  sorrow  God  demands  from  a  real 
penitent. 

The  conception  of  a  storehouse  of  merits  {thesaurus 
meritorum  or  indulgentiarum)  was  first  formulated  by 
Alexander  of  Hales  ^  in  the  thirteenth  century,  and  his 
ideas  were  accepted,  enlarged,  and  made  more  precise  by 
succeeding  theologians.^  Starting  with  the  existing  practice 
in  the  Church  that  some  penances  (such  as  pilgrimages) 
might  be  vicariously  performed,  and  bringing  together 
the  several  thoughts  that  the  faithful  are  members  of  one 
body,  that  the  good  deeds  of  each  of  the  members  are 
the  common  property  of  all,  and  therefore  that  the  more 

*  Sum/may  iv.  23, 

*  Thomas  Aquinas,  Summa  Theologice,  iii.,  SupplcmeTitunit  Quses.  xxy.  1. 


220       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

sinful  can  benefit  by  the  good  deeds  of  their  more  saintly 
brethren,  and  that  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  was  sufficient  to 
wipe  out  the  sins  of  all,  theologians  gradually  formulated 
the  doctrine  that  there  was  a  common  storehouse  which 
contained  the  good  deeds  of  living  men  and  women,  of 
the  saints  in  heaven  and  the  inexhaustible  merits  of 
Christ,  and  that  all  these  merits  accumulated  there  had 
been  placed  under  the  charge  of  the  Pope,  and  could  be 
dispensed  by  him  to  the  faithful.  The  doctrine  was  not 
very  precisely  defined  by  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  but  it  was  generally  believed  in,  taught,  and 
accepted.  It  went  to  increase  the  vague  sense  of  super- 
natural, spiritual  powers  attached  to  the  person  of  the 
Bishop  of  Eome.  It  had  one  important  consequence  on 
the  doctrine  of  Indulgences.  They  might  be  the  pay- 
ment out  of  this  treasury  of  an  absolute  equivalent  for  the 
satisfaction  due  by  the  penitent  for  his  sins ;  they  were 
no  longer  merely  the  substitution  of  one  form  of  penance 
for  another,  or  the  relaxation  of  a  penance  enjoined. 

The  institution  of  Penance  contained  within  it  the  four 
practices  of  Sorrow  for  the  sins  committed  (contritio) ;  the 
Confession  of  these  sins  to  the  priest ;  Satisfaction^  or  the 
due  manifestation  of  sorrow  in  the  ways  prescribed  by 
the  Church  through  the  command  of  the  confessor;  and  the 
Pardon  (ahsolutio)  pronounced  by  the  priest  in  God's  name. 
The  pardon  followed  the  satisfaction.  But  when  the 
institution  became  the  Sacrament  of  Penance,  the  order 
was  changed :  absolution  followed  confession  and  came 
before  satisfaction,  which  it  had  formerly  followed.  Satis- 
faction lost  its  old  meaning.  It  was  no  longer  the  outward 
sign  of  sorrow  and  the  necessary  precedent  of  pardon  or 
absolution.  According  to  the  new  theory,  the  absolution 
which  immediately  followed  confession  had  the  effect  of 
removing  the  whole  guilt  of  the  sins  confessed,  and  with 
the  guilt  the  whole  of  the  eternal  punishment  due.  This 
cancelling  of  guilt  and  of  eternal  punishment  did  not, 
however,  forthwith  open  the  gates  of  heaven  to  the  par- 
doned sinner.      It  was  felt  that  the  justice  of  God  could 


INDULGENCES  221 

not  permit  the  bciptized  sinner  to  escape  from  all  punish- 
ment whatever.  Hence  it  was  said  that  although  eternal 
punishment  had  disappeared  with  the  absolution,  there 
remained  temporal  puniyhment  due  for  the  sins,  and  that 
heaven  could  not  be  entered  until  this  temporal  punish- 
ment had  been  endured.^  Temporal  punishments  might 
be  of  two  kinds — those  endured  in  this  life,  or  those 
suffered  in  a  place  of  punishment  after  death.  The  pen- 
ance imposed  by  the  priest,  the  satisfaction,  now  became 
the  temporal  punishment  due  for  sins  committed.  If  the 
priest  had  imposed  the  due  amount,  and  if  the  penitent 
was  able  to  perform  all  that  had  been  imposed,  the  sins 
were  expiated.  But  if  the  priest  had  imposed  less  than 
the  justice  of  God  actually  demanded,  then  these  temporal 
pains  had  to  be  completed  in  Purgatory.  This  gave  rise 
to  great  uncertainty ;  for  who  could  feel  assured  that  the 
priest  had  calculated  rightly,  and  had  imposed  satisfactions 
or  temporal  penalties  which  were  of  the  precise  amount 
demanded  by  the  justice  of  God  ?  Hence  the  pains  of 
Purgatory  threatened  every  man.  It  was  here  that  the 
new  idea  of  Indulgences  came  in  to  aid  the  faithful  by 
securing  him  against  the  pains  of  Purgatory,  which  were 
not  included  in  the  absolution  obtained  in  the  Sacrament 
of  Penance.  Indulgences  in  the  sense  of  relaxations  of 
imposed  penances  went  into  the  background,  and  the 
really  valuable  Indulgence  was  one  which,  because  of  the 
merits  transferred  from  the  storehouse  of  merits,  was  an 
equivalent  in  God's  sight  for  the  temporal  punishments 
due  for  sins.  Thus,  in  the  opinion  of  Alexander  of  Hales, 
of  Bonaventura,^  and,  above  all,  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  real 

*      **Du  sprichst  *So  ich  am  letsten  in  todes  not, 
Ain  yeder  priester  mich  zu  absolviren  not '  : 
Von  Schuld  ist  war,  noch  nitt  von  pein,  so  du  bist  tod, 
Ja  fiir  ain  stund  in  fegfeiir  doit. 
Gabst  du  des  Kaysers  giite." 
— (Waekernac]jel,  Das  devtsche  Kirchenlied,  etc,  ii,  10<^8.) 

2  Bonaventura,  In  Librum  Quartum  S'ententiaram,  Dist.  xx.  Quaest.  6. 
Alexander  of  Halea,  Snmma,  iv.  Quaest.  59  ;  Thomas  Aquinas,  Summa,  iii,, 
Suppl.  Quaest.  i.  2. 


222       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

value  of  Indulgences  was  that  they  procured  the  remissioL 
of  penalties  due  after  absolution,  whether  these  penalties 
were  penances  imposed  by  the  priest  or  not ;  and  when 
the  uncertainty  of  the  imposed  penalties  is  remembered, 
the  most  valuable  of  all  Indulgences  were  those  which  had 
regard  to  the  unimposed  penalties ;  the  priest  might  make 
a  mistake,  but  God  did  not  blunder. 

While  Indulgences  were  always  connected  with  satis- 
factions, and  changed  with  the  changes  in  the  meaning  of 
the  latter  term,  they  were  not  the  less  influenced  by  a 
distinction  which  came  to  be  drawn  between  attrition  and 
contrition,  and  by  the  application  of  the  distinction  to  the 
theory  of  the  Sacrament  of  Penance.  During  the  earlier 
Middle  Ages  and  down  to  the  thirteenth  century,  it  was 
always  held  that  contrition  (sorrow  prompted  by  love)  was 
the  one  thing  taken  into  account  by  God  in  pardoning  the 
sinner.  The  theologians  of  the  thirteenth  century,  how- 
ever, began  to  draw  a  distinction  between  this  godly  sorro\\' 
and  a  certain  amount  of  sorrow  which  might  arise  from  a 
variety  of  causes  of  a  less  worthy  nature,  and  especially 
from  servile  fear.  This  was  called  attrition]  and  it  was 
held  that  this  attrition,  though  of  itself  too  imperfect  to 
win  the  pardon  of  God,  might  become  perfected  through 
the  confession  heard  by  the  priest,  and  in  the  sacramental 
absolution  pronounced  by  him.  Tery  naturally,  though 
perhaps  illogically,  it  was  believed  that  an  imperfect  sorrow, 
though  sufficient  to  procm-e  absolution,  and,  therefore,  the 
blotting  out  of  eternal  punishment,  merited  more  temporal 
punishment  than  if  it  had  been  sorrow  of  a  godly  sort. 
But  it  was  these  temporal  penalties  (including  the  pains 
of  Purgatory)  that  Indulgences  provided  for.  Hence, 
Indulgences  appealed  more  strongly  to  the  indifferent 
Christian,  who  knew  that  he  had  sinned,  and  at  the  same 
time  felt  that  his  sorrow  was  not  the  effect  of  his  love  to 
God.  He  knew  that  his  sins  deserved  some  punishment. 
His  conscience,  however  weak,  told  him  that  he  could  not 
sin  with  perfect  impunity,  and  that  something  more  was 
needed  than  his  "oerfunctory  confession  to  a  priest.     He 


INDULGENCES  223 

felt  that  he  must  do  something — fast,  or  go  on  a  pilgrimage, 
or  purchase  an  Indulgence.  It  was  at  this  point  that  the 
Church  intervened  to  show  him  how  his  poor  performance 
could  be  transformed  by  the  power  of  the  Church  and  its 
treasury  of  merits  into  something  so  great  that  the  penal- 
ties of  Purgatory  could  be  actually  evaded.  His  cheap 
sorrow,  his  careless  confession,  need  not  trouble  him. 
Hence,  for  the  ordinary  indifferent  Christian,  Attrition, 
Confession,  and  Indulgence  became  the  three  heads  of  the 
scheme  of  the  Church  for  his  salvation.  The  one  thiug 
that  satisfied  his  conscience  was  the  burdensome  thing 
he  had  to  do,  and  that  was  to  procure  an  Indulgence 
— a  matter  made  increasingly  easy  for  him  as  time 
went  on. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  this  doctrine  of  Attrition, 
and  its  evident  effect  in  deadening  the  conscience  and  in 
lowering  the  standard  of  morality,  had  the  undivided  sup- 
port of  the  theologians  of  the  later  Middle  Ages,  but  it 
was  the  doctrine  taught  by  most  of  the  Scotist  theologians, 
who  took  the  lead  in  theological  thinking  during  these 
times.  It  was  set  forth  in  its  most  extravagant  form 
by  such  a  representative  man  as  John  of  Paltz  in  Erfurt ; 
it  was  preached  by  the  pardon-sellers;  it  was  eageii}' 
welcomed  by  indifferent  Christians,  who  desired  to  escape 
the  penalties  of  sin  without  abandoning  its  enjoyments ; 
it  exalted  the  power  of  the  priesthood;  and  it  was 
specially  valuable  in  securing  good  sales  of  Indulgences 
and  therefore  in  increasing  the  papal  revenues.  It 
lay  at  the  basis  of  the  whole  theory  and  practice  of 
Indulgences,  which  confronted  Luther  when  he  issued  his 
Theses. 

History  shows  us  that  gross  abuses  had  always  gathered 
round  the  practice  of  Indulgences,  even  in  their  earlier  and 
simpler  forms.  The  priests  had  abused  the  system,  and 
the  power  of  issuing  Indulgences  had  been  taken  from 
them  and  confined  to  the  bishops.  The  bishops,  in  turn, 
had  abused  the  privilege,  and  the  Popes  had  gradually 
assumed  that  the  power  to  grant  an  Indulgence  belonged 


224       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

fco  the  Bishop  of  Eome  exclusively,  or  to  those  to  whom 
he  might  delegate  it;  and  this  assumption  seemed  both 
reasonable  and  salutary.  The  power  was  at  first  sparingly 
used.  It  is  true  that  Pope  Urban  ii.,  in  1095,  promised 
to  the  Crusaders  an  Indulgence  such  as  had  never  before 
been  heard  of — a  complete  remission  of  all  imposed 
canonical  penances;  but  it  was  not  until  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteen  centuries  that  Indulgences,  now  doubly  danger 
ous  to  the  moral  life  from  the  new  theories  which  had 
arisen,  were  lavished  even  more  unsparingly  than  in  the 
days  when  any  bishop  had  power  to  grant  them.  From 
the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century  they  were  given  to 
raise  recruits  for  papal  wars.  They  were  lavished  on  the 
religious  Orders,  either  for  the  benefit  of  the  members  or 
for  the  purpose  of  attracting  strangers  and  their  gifts  to 
their  churches.  They  were  bestowed  on  cathedrals  and 
other  churches,  or  on  individual  altars  in  churches,  and  had 
the  effect  of  endowments.  They  were  joined  to  special 
collections  of  relics,  to  be  earned  by  the  faithful  who 
visited  the  shrines.  They  were  given  to  hospitals,  and  for 
the  upkeep  of  bridges  and  of  roads.  Wherever  they  are 
met  with  in  the  later  Middle  Ages,  and  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  say  where  they  are  not  to  be  found,  they  are  seen 
to  be  associated  with  sordid  money  -  getting,  and,  as 
Luther  remarked  in  an  early  sermon  on  the  subject,  they 
were  a  very  grievous  instrument  placed  in  the  hand  of 
avarice. 

/  The  practice  of  granting  Indulgences  was  universally 
prevalent  and  was  universally  accepted  ;  but  it  was  not  easy 
to  give  an  explanation  of  the  system,  in  the  sense  of  show- 
ing that  it  was  an  essential  element  in  Christian  discipline. 
No  mediaeval  theologian  attempted  to  do  any  such  thing. 
Bonaventura  and  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  two  great  Schooh 
men  who  did  more  than  any  others  to  provide  a  theological 
basis  for  the  system,  tell  us  quite  frankly  that  it  is  their 
business  to  accept  the  fact  tliat  Indulgences  do  exist  as 
part  of  the  penitentiary  discipline  of  the  Church,  and, 
accepting  it,  they  thought  themselves  bound  to  construct  a 


INDULGENCES  225 

reasonable  theory.^  The  practice  altered,  and  new  theories 
were  needed  to  explain  the  variations.  It  is  needless  to 
say  that  these  explanations  did  not  always  agree ;  and 
that  tliere  were  very  great  differences  of  opinion  about 
what  an  Indulgence  really  effected  for  tlie  man  who 
bought  it. 

Of  all  these  disputed  questions  the  most  important 
was :  Did  an  Indulgence  give  remission  for  the  guilt  of  sin, 
or  only  for  certain  penalties  which  followed  the  sinful 
deed  ?  This  is  a  question  about  which  modern  Eomanists 
are  extremely  sensitive. 

The  universal  answer  given  by  all  defenders  of  Indul- 
gences who  have  written  on  the  subject  since  the  Council 
of  Trent,  is  that  guilt  {culpa)  and  eternal  punishment 
(poence  eternce)  are  dealt  with  in  the  Sacrament  of  Penance, 
and  that  Indulgences  relate  only  to  temporal  punishments, 
including  under  that  designation  the  pains  of  Purgatory. 
This  modern  opinion  is  confirmed  by  the  most  eminent 
authorities  of  the  mediseval  Church.  It  has  been  accepted 
in  the  description  of  the  theory  of  Indulgences  given 
above,  since  it  has  been  said  that  the  principal  use  of 
Indulgences  was  to  secure  against  Purgatory.  But  these 
statements  do  not  exhaust  the  question.  Mediaeval  theo- 
logy did  not  create  Indulgences,  it  only  followed  and  tried 
to  justify  the  practices  of  the  Pope  and  of  the  Eoman 
Curia, — a  rather  difficult  task.  The  question  still  remains 
whether  some  of  the  Papal  Bulls  promulgating  Indulgences 
did  not  promise  the  removal  of  guilt  as  well  as  security 
against  temporal  punishments.  If  these  be  examined, 
spurious  Bulls  being  set  aside,  it  will  be  found  that  many 
of  them  make  no  mention  of  the  need  of  previous  con- 
fession and  of  priestly  absolution  ;  that  one  or  two 
expressly  make  mention  of  a  remission  of  guilt  as  well  as 
of  penalty ;  and  that  many  (especially  those  which  pro- 

'  Thomas  Aqninas,  Summa  Theologies,  iii.,  Supplem.  Qusestio  xxv.  1  : 
**Ecclesia  universalis  non  potest  errare  .  .  .  ecclesia  universalis  iiidulgentiaa 
approbat  et  facit.  Ergo  indulgentise  alic^uid  valeut .  .  .  quia  impium  esset 
dicere  quod  Ecclesia  aliquid  vanfe  faceret." 

15* 


226  THE  I17DULGENCE   CONTROVERSY 

claim  a  Jubilee  Indulgence)  use  language  which  inevitably 
led  intelligent  laymen  like  Dante  to  believe  that  the  Popes 
did  proclaim  the  remission  of  guilt  as  well  as  of  penalty. 
Of  course,  it  may  be  said  that  in  those  days  the  distinction 
between  guilt  {culpa)  and  penalty  (pcena)  had  not  been  very 
exactly  defined,  and  that  the  phrase  reinission  of  sins  was 
used  to  denote  both  remission  of  guilt  and  remission  of 
penalty;  still  it  is  difficult  to  withstand  the  conclusion 
that,  even  in  theory,  Indulgences  had  been  declared  to  be 
efficacious  for  the  removal  of  the  guilt  of  sin  in  the  pre- 
sence of  God. 

These  questions  of  the  theological  meaning  of  an 
Indulgence,  though  necessary  to  understand  the  whole 
situation,  had  after  all  little  to  do  with  Luther's  action. 
He  approached  the  whole  matter  from  the  side  of  the 
practical  effect  of  the  proclamation  of  an  Indulgence  on 
the  minds  of  common  men  who  knew  nothing  of  refined 
theological  distinctions ;  and  the  evidence  that  the  common 
people  did  generally  believe  that  an  Indulgence  did  remove 
the  guilt  of  sin  is  overwhelming.  Contemporary  chroniclers 
are  to  be  found  who  declare  that  Indulgences  given  to 
Crusaders  remit  the  guilt  as  well  as  the  punishment ; 
contemporary  preachers  assert  that  plenary  Indulgences 
remit  guilt,  and  justify  their  opinion  by  declaring  that 
such  Indulgences  were  supposed  to  contain  within  them 
the  Sacrament  of  Penance.  The  popular  guide-books 
written  for  pilgrims  to  Kome  and  Compostella  spread  the 
popular  idea  that  Indulgences  acquired  by  such  pilgrimages 
do  remit  guilt  as  well  as  penalty.  The  popular  belief  was 
so  thoroughly  acknowledged,  that  even  Councils  had  to 
throw  the  blame  for  it  on  the  pardon- sellers,  or,  like  the 
Council  of  Constance,  impeached  the  Pope  and  compelled 
him  to  confess  that  he  had  granted  Indulgences  for  the 
remission  of  guilt  as  well  as  of  penalty.  This  widespread 
popular  belief  of  itself  justified  Luther  in  calling  attention 
to  this  side  of  the  matter. 

Moreover,  it  is  well  to  see  what  the  theory  of  the 
most  rerpected  theol  )gians  actually  meant  when  looked  at 


INDULGENCES  227 

practically.  Since  the  formulation  of  the  Sacrament  of 
Penance,  the  theory  had  been  that  all  guilt  of  sin  and 
all  eternal  punishment  were  remitted  in  the  priestly  abso- 
lution which  followed  the  confession  of  the  penitent.  The 
Sacrament  of  Penance  had  abolished  guilt  and  Hell.  But 
there  remained  the  actual  sins  to  be  punished,  because  the 
justice  of  God  demanded  it,  and  this  was  done  in  the 
temporal  pains  of  Purgatory.  The  "  common  man,"  if  he 
thought  at  all  about  it,  may  be  excused  if  he  considered 
that  guilt  and  Hell,  taken  away  by  the  one  hand,  were 
restored  by  the  other.  There  remained  for  him  the  sense 
that  God's  justice  demanded  some  punishment  for  the  sins 
he  had  committed ;  and  if  this  was  not  guilt  according  to 
theological  definition,  it  was  probably  all  that  he  could 
attain  to.  He  was  taught  and  believed  that  punishment 
awaited  him  for  these  actual  sins  of  his ;  and  a  punishment 
which  might  last  thousands  of  years  in  Purgatory  was  not 
very  different  from  an  eternal  punishment  in  his  eyes. 
The  Indulgence  came  to  him  filled  as  he  was  with  these 
vague  thoughts,  and  offered  him  a  sure  way  of  easing  his 
conscience  and  avoiding  the  punishment  he  knew  he 
deserved.  He  had  only  to  pay  the  price  of  a  Papal  Ticket, 
perform  the  canonical  good  deed  required,  whatever  it 
might  be,  and  he  was  assured  that  his  punishment  was 
remitted,  and  God's  justice  satisfied.  This  may  not  involve 
the  thought  of  the  remission  of  guilt  in  the  theological 
sense  of  the  word,  but  it  certainly  misled  the  moral 
instincts  of  the  "  common  man "  about  as  much  as  if  it 
did.  It  is  not  surprising  that  the  common  people  made 
the  theological  mistake,  if  mistake  it  was,  and  saw  in  every 
plenary  Indulgence  the  promise  of  the  remission  of  guilt 
as  well  as  of  penalty,^  for  with  them  remission  of  guilt 
and  quieting  of  conscience  were  one  and  the  same  thing. 
It  was  this  practical  moral  effect  of  Indulgences,  and  not 
the  theological  explanation  of  the  theory,  which  stirred 
Luther  to  make  his  protest. 

^  Cf.   the  hymn,   "Der  guldin  Ahlass,"  of  the  fifteenth   century,  ia 
Wackernagel,  ii.  283-284. 


228       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

§  2.  Luther's  Theses} 

Luther's  Theses  are  singularly  unlike  what  might  have 
been  expected  from  a  Professor  of  Theology.  They  lack 
theological  definition,  and  contain  many  repetitions  which 
might  have  been  easily  avoided.  They  are  simply  ninety- 
five  sturdy  strokes  struck  at  a  great  ecclesiastical  abuse 
which  was  searing  the  consciences  of  many.  They  look 
like  the  utterances  of  a  man  who  was  in  close  touch  with 
the  people;  who  had  been  greatly  shocked  at  reports 
brought  to  him  of  what  the  pardon-sellers  had  said ;  who 
had  read  a  good  many  of  the  theological  explanations  of 
the  practice  of  Indulgence,  and  had  noted  down  a  few 
things  which  he  desired  to  contradict.  They  read  as  if 
they  were  meant  for  laymen,  and  were  addressed  to  their 
common  sense  of  spiritual  things.  They  are  plain  and 
easily  understood,  and  keep  within  the  field  of  simple 
religion  and  plain  moral  truths. 

The  Theses  appealed  irresistibly  to  all  those  who  had 
been  brought  up  in  the  simple  evangelical  faith  which 
distinguished  the  quiet  home  life  of  so  many  German 
families,  and  who  had  not  forsaken  it.  They  also  appealed 
to  all  who  had  begun  to  adopt  that  secular  or  non-ecclesi- 
astical piety  which,  we  have  seen,  had  been  spreading 
quietly  but  rapidly  throughout  Germany  at  the  close  of 
the  Middle  Ages.  These  two  forces,  both  religious,  gathered 
round  Luther.     The  effect  of  the  Theses  was  almost  imme- 

*  Sources:  Kohler,  Luthers  95  Theses  samt  semen  ResoluHonen  sowU 
den  Oegenschri/ten  von  fVimpina'Tetzel,  Eck,  und  Prierias  und  den  A  ntworten 
Luthers  c?araw/ (Leipzig,  1903);  Emil  Eeich,  Select  Documents  illustrating 
MedicevoU  and  Modern  History  (London,  1905). 

Lateb  Books  :  J.  E.  Kapp,  Sammlung  emiger  zum  papstlichen  AblasSf 
iiberJiaupt  .  .  .  aber  zu  der  .  .  .  zwischen  Martin  Luther  und  Johann  Tetzel 
hiervonge/ilhrten  Streitigkeit  gehorigen  Schriften^  mit  Einleitungen  v/nd 
An7nerkungen  versehen  (Leipzig,  1721),  and  Kleine  Nachlese  einiger  .  .  . 
zur  Erlduterung  der  Beformalwnsgeschichte  niUzUcher  Urkunden  (Four 
parts,  Leipzig,  1727-1733)  ;  Bratke,  Luthers  95  Theses  und  ihre  dogmen- 
historischen  Voraussdzungen  (Gottingen,  1884) ;  Dieckhoff,  Der  Ablassstreit 
dogmengeschichtlich  dargestellt  (Gotlia,  1886)  ;  Grbne,  Tetzel  und  LiUher 
(Soest,  I860}. 


LUTHER'S   THESES  229 

diate :  the  desire  to  purchase  Indulgences  cooled,  and  the 

sales  almost  stopped. 

The  Ninety-five  Theses  made  six  different  assertions 
about  Indulgences  and  their  efficacy : 

L  An  Indulgence  is  and  can  only  be  the  remission  of 
a  merely  ecclesiastical  penalty  ;  the  Church  can  remit  what 
the  Church  has  imposed;  it  cannot  remit  what  God  has 
imposed. 

ii.  An  Indulgence  can  never  remove  guilt;  the  Pope 
himself  cannot  do  such  a  thing;  God  has  kept  that  in 
His  own  hand. 

iii.  It  cannot  remit  the  divine  punishment  for  sin ; 
that  also  is  in  the  hands  of  God  alone. 

iv.  It  can  have  no  efficacy  for  souls  in  Purgatory; 
penalties  imposed  by  the  Church  can  only  refer  to  the 
living ;  death  dissolves  them ;  what  the  Pope  can  do  for 
souls  in  Purgatory  is  by  prayer,  not  by  jurisdiction  or  the 
power  of  the  keys. 

V.  The  Christian  who  has  true  repentance  has  already 
received  pardon  from  God  altogether  apart  from  an  In- 
dulgence, and  does  not  need  one;  Christ  demands  this 
true  repentance  from  every  one. 

vi.  The  Treasury  of  Merits  has  never  been  properly 
defined,  it  is  hard  to  say  what  it  is,  and  it  is  not  properly 
understood  by  the  people ;  it  cannot  be  the  merits  of 
Christ  and  of  His  saints,  because  these  act  of  themselves 
and  quite  apart  from  the  intervention  of  the  Pope ;  it  can 
Uican  nothing  more  than  that  the  Pope,  having  the  power  of 
the  keys,  can  remit  ecclesiastical  penalties  imposed  by  the 
Church ;  the  true  Treasure-house  of  merits  is  the  Holy 
Gospel  of  the  grace  and  glory  of  God. 

The  Archbishop  of  Mainz,  finding  that  the  publication 
of  the  Theses  interfered  with  the  sale  of  the  Indulgences, 
sent  a  copy  to  Eome.  Pope  Leo,  thinking  that  the  whole 
thing  was  a  monkish  quarrel,  contented  himself  with  asking 
the  General  of  the  Augustinian  Eremites  to  keep  his 
monks  quiet.  Tetzel,  in  conjunction  with  a  friend,  Conrad 
Wimpina,  published  a  set  of  counter-theses.     John  Mayr 


230       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

of  Eck,  professor  at  Ingolstadt,  by  far  the  ablest  opponent 
Luther  ever  had,  wrote  an  answer  to  the  Theses  which  he 
entitled  Obelisks;^  and  Luther  replied  in  a  tract  with  the 
title  Asterisks.  At  Eome,  Silvester  Mazzolini  (1460—  ?) 
of  Prierio,  a  Dominican  monk,  papal  censor  for  the  Eoman 
Province  and  an  Inquisitor,  was  profoundly  dissatisfied  with 
the  Ninety-five  Theses,  and  proceeded  to  criticise  them 
severely  in  a  Dialogue  about  the  Power  of  the  Pope  ;  against 
the  Presumptuous  Conclusions  of  Martin  Luther.  The  book 
reached  Germany  by  the  middle  of  January  1518.  The 
Augustinian  Eremites  held  their  usual  annual  chapter  at 
Heidelberg  in  April  1518,  and  Luther  heard  his  Theses 
temperately  discussed  by  his  brother  monks.  He  found 
the  opposition  to  his  views  much  stronger  than  he  had 
expected;  but  the  discussion  was  fair  and  honest,  and 
Luther  enjoyed  it  after  the  ominous  silence  kept  by  most 
of  his  friends,  who  had  thought  his  action  rash.  When 
he  returned  from  Heidelberg  he  began  a  general  answer 
to  his  opponents.  The  book,  Resolutiones,  was  probably  the 
most  carefully  written  of  all  Luther's  writings.  He  thought 
long  over  it,  weighed  every  statement  carefully,  and  re- 
wrote portions  several  times.  The  preface,  addressed  to  his 
Vicar-General,  Staupitz,  contains  some  interesting  auto- 
biographical material;  the  book  itself  was  addressed  to  the 
Pope;  it  was  a  detailed  defence  of  his  Theses."^ 

The  Ninety -five  Theses  had  a  circulation  which  was,  for 
the  time,  unprecedented.  They  were  known  throughout 
Germany  in  a  little  over  a  fortnight ;  they  were  read  over 
Western  Europe  within  four  weeks  "  as  if  they  had  been 
circulated  by  angelic  messengers,"  says  Myconius  enthusi- 
astically.    Luther   was   staggered  at   the  way  they  were 

*  The  Obelisks  of  Eck  were  printed  and  circulated  privately  long  before 
they  were  published ;  a  copy  was  in  Luther's  hand  on  March  4th,  1518  ; 
it  was  answered  by  him  on  March  24th,  and  was  published  in  the  August 
following. 

*  Kohler  has  collected  together  the  Ninety-five  Theses,  the  Resolutiones, 
and  the  attacks  on  the  Theses  by  Wimpina-Tetzel,  Eck,  and  Prierias,  and 
published  them  in  one  small  book  (Leipzig,  1903).  It  is  a  handbook  of 
reference,  and  thj  text  of  the  documents  has  been  carefully  examined. 


Luther's  theses  231 

received ;  he  said  that  he  had  not  meant  to  determine, 
but  to  debate.  The  controversy  they  awakened  increased 
their  popularity.  In  the  Theses,  and  especially  in  the  Re 
solutioneSy  Luther  had  practically  discarded  all  the  practices 
which  the  Pope  and  the  Roman  Curia  had  introduced  in 
the  matter  of  Indulgences  from  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  and  all  the  ingenious  explanations 
Scholastic  theologians  had  brought  forward  to  justify  these 
practices.  The  readiest  way  to  refute  him  was  to  assert 
the  power  of  the  Eoman  Bishop ;  and  this  was  the  line 
taken  by  his  critics.  Their  arguments  amount  to  this : 
the  power  to  issue  an  Indulgence  is  simply  a  particular 
instance  of  the  power  of  papal  jurisdiction,  and  Indulgences 
are  simply  what  the  Pope  proclaims  them  to  be.  Therefore, 
to  attack  Indulgences  is  to  attack  the  power  of  the  Pope, 
and  that  cannot  be  tolerated.  The  Eoman  Church  is 
virtually  the  Universal  Church,  and  the  Pope  is  practically 
the  Roman  Church.  Hence,  as  the  representative  of  the 
Roman  Church,  which  in  turn  represents  the  Church 
Universal,  the  Pope,  when  he  acts  officially,  cannot  err. 
Official  decisions  are  given  in  actions  as  well  as  in  words, 
custom  has  the  force  of  law.  Therefore,  whoever  objects  to 
such  a  long-established  system  as  Indulgences  is  a  heretic, 
and  does  not  deserve  to  be  heard.^ 

But  the  argument  which  appealed  most  powerfully  to 
the  Roman  Curia  was  the  fact  that  the  sales  of  the  Papal 
Tickets  had  been  declining  since  the  publication  of  the 
Theses.  Indulgences  were  the  source  of  an  enormous 
revenue,  and  anything  which  checked  their  sale  would 
cause  financial  embarrassment.  Pope  Leo  X.  in  his  "  enjoy- 
ment of  the  Papacy "  lived  lavishly.  He  had  a  huge 
income,  much  greater  than  that  of  any  European  monarch, 
but  he  lived  beyond  it.  His  income  amounted  to  between 
four  and  five  hundred  thousand  ducats ;  but  he  had  spent 
seven  hundred  thousand  on  his  war  about  the  Duchy  of 
Urbino ;   the  magnificent  reception  of  his  brother  J  alian 

*  The  arguments  were  all  founded  on  Thomas  Aquinas,  Summaf  iii, 
Supplementumf  Qusestio  rxv.  1. 


232       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

and  his  bride  in  Eome  (1514)  had  cost  him  fifty  thousand 
ducats ;  and  he  had  spent  over  three  hundred  thousand  on 
the  marriage  of  his  nephew  Lorenzo  (1518).  Voices  had 
been  heard  in  Home  as  well  as  in  Germany  protesting 
against  this  extravagance.  The  Pope  was  in  desperate 
need  of  money.  It  is  scarcely  to  be  wondered  that  Luther 
was  summoned  to  Eome  (summons  dated  July  1518,  and 
received  by  Luther  on  August  7th)  to  answer  for  his  attack 
on  the  Indulgence  system.  To  have  obeyed  would  have 
meant  death. 

The  peremptory  summons  could  be  construed  as  an  affront 
to  the  University  of  Wittenberg,  on  whose  boards  the  Ninety- 
five  Theses  had  been  posted.  Luther  wrote  to  his  friend 
Spalatin  (George  Burkhardt  of  Spalt,  1484-1545),  who  was 
chaplain  and  private  secretary  to  the  Elector  Frederick, 
suggesting  that  the  prince  ought  to  defend  the  rights  of  his 
University.  Spalatin  wrote  at  once  to  the  Elector  and  also 
to  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  and  the  result  was  that  the 
summons  to  Eome  was  cancelled,  and  it  was  arranged  tliat 
the  matter  was  to  be  left  in  the  hands  of  the  Papal  Legate 
in  Germany,  Thomas  de  Vio,  Cardinal  Cajetan^  (1470— 
1553),  and  Luther  was  ordered  to  present  himself  before 
that  official  at  Augsburg.  The  interview  (October  1518) 
was  not  very  satisfactory.  The  cardinal  demanded  that 
Luther  should  recant  his  heresies  without  any  argument. 
When  pressed  to  say  what  the  heresies  were,  he  named  the 
statement  in  the  58th  Thesis  that  the  merits  of  Christ 
work  effectually  without  the  intervention  of  the  Pope,  and 
that  in  the  Resolutiones  which  said  that  the  sacraments  are 
not  efficacious  apart  from  faith  in  the  recipient.  There 
was  some  discussion  notwithstanding  the  Legate's  declara- 
tion ;  but  in  the  end   Luther  was  ordered  to  recant   or 

*  Thomas  de  Vio  wa4S  born  at  Gaeta,  a  town  situated  on  a  promontory 
about  fifty  miles  north  of  Naples,  and  was  called  Cajetanus  from  his  birth, 
place.  His  baptismal  name  was  James,  and  he  took  that  of  Thomas  in 
honour  of  Thomas  Aquinas.  He  had  entered  the  Dominican  Order  at  the 
age  of  sixteen ;  he  was  a  learned  man,  a  Scholastic  of  the  older  Thomist 
type,  and  not  without  evangelical  sympathies  ;  but  he  had  the  Dominican 
idea  that  ecclesiastical  discipline  must  be  maintained  at  all  costs. 


GROWING  SYMPATHY  WITH  LUTHER     233 

depart.  He  wrote  out  an  a])pcal  from  the  Pope  ill- 
informed  to  the  Pope  well-informed,  also  an  appeal  to  a 
General  Council,  and  returned  to  Wittenberg. 

When  Luther  had  posted  his  Theses  on  the  doors  of  the 
Church  of  All  Saints,  he  had  been  a  solitary  monk  with 
nothing  but  his  manhood  to  back  him ;  but  nine  months 
had  made  a  wonderful  difference  in  the  situation.  He 
now  knew  that  he  was  a  representative  man,  with  sup- 
porters to  be  numbered  by  the  thousand.  His  colleagues 
at  Wittenberg  were  with  him;  his  students  demon- 
stratively loyal  (they  had  been  burning  the  Wimpina- 
Tetzel  counter-theses) ;  his  theology  was  spreading  among 
all  the  cloisters  of  his  Order  in  Germany,  and  even  in  the 
Netherlands ;  and  the  rapid  circulation  of  his  Theses  had 
shown  him  that  he  had  the  ear  of  Germany.  His  first 
task,  on  his  return  to  Wittenberg,  was  to  prepare  for  the 
press  an  account  of  his  interview  with  Cardinal  Cajetan 
at  Augsburg,  and  this  was  published  under  the  title,  Acta 
Augustana, 

Luther  was  at  pains  to  take  the  people  of  Germany 
into  his  confidence ;  he  published  an  account  of  every 
important  interview  he  had ;  the  people  were  able  to  follow 
him  step  by  step,  and  he  was  never  so  far  in  advance  that 
they  were  unable  to  see  his  footprints.  The  immediate 
effect  of  the  Acta  Augustana  was  an  immense  amount  of 
public  sympathy  for  Luther.  The  people,  even  the 
Humanists  who  had  cared  little  for  the  controversy,  saw 
that  an  eminently  pious  man,  an  esteemed  teacher  who 
was  making  his  obscure  University  famous,  who  had  done 
nothing  but  propose  a  discussion  on  the  notoriously  in- 
tricate question  of  Indulgences,  was  peremptorily  ordered 
to  recant  and  remain  silent.  They  could  only  infer  that 
the  Italians  treated  the  Germans  contemptuously,  and 
wished  simply  to  drain  the  country  of  money  to  be  spent 
in  the  luxuries  of  the  papal  court.  The  Elector  Frederick 
shared  the  common  opinion,  and  was,  besides,  keenly  alive 
to  anjrthing  which  touched  his  University  and  its  pro- 
sperity.    There  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  he  had  mu(;h 


234       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

sympathy  with  Luther's  views.  But  the  University  of 
Wittenberg,  the  seat  of  learning  he  had  founded,  so  long 
languishing  with  a  very  precarious  life  and  now  flourish- 
ing, was  the  apple  of  his  eye ;  and  he  resolved  to  defend 
it,  and  to  protect  the  teacher  who  had  won  renown 
for  it. 

The  political  situation  in  Germany  was  too  delicate,  and 
the  personal  political  influence  of  Frederick  too  great,  for  the 
Pope  to  act  rashly  m  any  matter  in  which  that  prince  took 
a  deep  interest.  The  country  was  on  the  eve  of  an  election 
of  a  King  of  the  Eomans ;  Maximilian  was  old,  and  an 
imperial  election  might  occur  at  any  time ;  and  Frederick 
was  one  of  the  most  important  factors  in  either  case.  So 
the  Pope  resolved  to  act  cautiously.  The  condemnation  of 
Luther  by  the  Cardinal-Legate  was  held  over,  and  a  special 
papal  delegate  was  sent  down  to  Germany  to  make  inquiries. 
Every  care  was  taken  to  select  a  man  who  would  be  likely  to 
be  acceptable  to  the  Elector.  Charles  von  Miltitz,  a  Saxon 
nobleman  belonging  to  the  Meisen  district,  a  canon  of 
Mainz,  Trier,  and  Meissen,  a  papal  chamberlain,  an  acquaint- 
of  Spalatin's,  the  Elector's  own  agent  at  the  Court  of  Eome, 
was  sent  to  Germany.  He  took  with  him  the  "  Golden 
Eose  "  as  a  token  of  the  Pope's  personal  admiration  for  the 
Elector.  He  was  furnished  with  numerous  letters  from 
His  Holiness  to  the  Elector,  to  some  of  the  Saxon  council- 
lors, to  the  magistrates  of  Wittenberg,  in  all  of  which 
Luther  figured  as  a  child  of  the  Devil.  The  phrase  was 
j)robably  forgotten  when  Leo  wrote  to  Luther  some  time 
afterwards  and  called  him  his  dear  son. 

When  Miltitz  got  among  German  speaking  people  he 
found  that  the  state  of  matters  was  undreamt  of  at  the 
papal  court.  He  was  a  German,  and  knew  the  Germans. 
He  could  see,  what  the  Cardinal-Legate  had  never  per- 
ceived, that  he  had  to  deal  not  with  the  stubbornness  of  a 
recalcitrant  monk,  but  with  the  slow  movement  of  a  nation. 
When  he  visited  his  friends  and  relations  in  Augsburg  and 
Nurnberg,  he  found  that  three  out  of  five  were  on  Luther's 
side.     He  came  to  the  wise  resolution  that  he  would  see 


LUTHER  STUDIES  THE  DECRETALS      235 

both  Luther  and  Tetzel  privately  before  producing  his 
credentials.  Tetzel  he  could  not  see.  The  unhappy  man 
wrote  to  Miltitz  that  he  dared  not  stir  from  his  convent, 
so  greatly  was  he  in  danger  from  the  violence  of  the  people. 
Miltitz  met  Luther  in  the  house  of  Spalatin ;  he  at  once 
disowned  the  speeches  of  the  pardon-sellers ;  he  let  it  be 
seen  that  he  did  not  think  much  of  the  Cardinal-Legate's 
methods  of  action ;  he  so  prevailed  on  Luther  that  the 
latter  promised  to  write  a  submissive  letter  to  the  Pope, 
to  advise  people  to  reverence  the  Koman  See,  to  say  that 
Indulgences  were  useful  in  the  remission  of  canonical  pen- 
ances. Luther  did  all  this ;  and  if  the  Eoman  Curia  had 
supported  Miltitz  there  is  no  saying  how  far  the  reconcilia- 
tion would  have  gone.  But  the  Eoman  Curia  did  not 
support  the  papal  chamberlain,  and  Miltitz  had  also  to 
reckon  with  John  Eck,  who  was  burning  to  extinguish 
Luther  in  a  public  discussion. 

The  months  between  his  interview  at  Augsburg  (October 
1518)  and  the  Disputation  with  John  Eck  at  Leipzig 
(June  1519)  had  been  spent  by  Luther  in  hard  and  dis- 
quieting studies.  His  opponents  had  confronted  him  with 
the  Pope's  absolute  supremacy  in  all  ecclesiastical  matters. 
This  was  one  of  Luther's  oldest  inherited  beliefs.  The 
Church  had  been  for  him  "  the  Pope's  House,"  in  which 
the  Pope  was  the  house-father,  to  whom  all  obedience 
was  due.  It  was  hard  for  him  to  think  otherwise.  He 
had  been  re-examining  his  convictions  about  justifying  faith 
and  attempting  to  trace  clearly  their  consequences,  and 
whether  they  did  lead  to  his  declarations  about  the  efficacy 
of  Indulgences.  He  could  come  to  no  other  conclusion.  It 
became  necessary  to  investigate  the  evidence  for  the  papal 
claim  to  absolute  authority.  He  began  to  study  the 
Decretals,  and  found,  to  his  amazement  and  indignation, 
that  they  were  full  of  frauds ;  and  that  the  papal  supre- 
macy had  been  forced  on  Germany  on  the  strength  of  a 
collection  of  Decretals  many  of  which  were  plainly  for- 
geries. It  is  difficult  to  say  whether  the  discovery  brought 
more  joy  or  more  grief  to  Luther.     Under  the  combined 


236       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

influences  of  historical  study,  of  the  opinions  of  the  early 
Church  Fathers,  and  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  one  of  his 
oldest  landmarks  was  crumbling  to  pieces.  His  mind  was 
in  a  whirl  of  doubt.  He  was  half -exultant  and  half- 
terrified  at  the  result  of  his  studies ;  and  his  corre- 
spondence reveals  how  his  mood  of  mind  changed  from 
week  to  week.  It  was  while  he  was  thus  "  on  the  swither," 
tremulously  on  the  balance,  that  John  Eck  challenged  him 
to  dispute  at  Leipzig  on  the  primacy  and  supremacy  of 
the  Koman  Pontiff.  The  discussion  might  clear  the  air, 
might  make  himself  see  where  he  stood.  He  accepted  the 
challenge  almost  feverishly. 


§  3.   The  Leipzig  Disputation} 

Leipzig  was  an  enemies'  country,  and  his  Wittenberg 
friends  would  not  allow  Luther  to  go  there  unaccompanied. 
The  young  Duke  Barnim,  who  was  Eector  of  the  University 
of  Wittenberg,  accompanied  Carlstadt  and  Luther,  to  give 
them  the  protection  of  his  presence.  Melanchthon,  who 
had  been  a  member  of  the  teaching  staff  of  Wittenberg 
since  August  1518,  Justus  Jonas,  and  Nicholas  Amsdorf 
went  along  with  them.  Two  hundred  Wittenberg  students 
in  helmets  and  halberts  formed  a  guard,  and  walked  beside 
the  two  country  carts  which  carried  their  professors.  An 
eye-witness  of  the  scenes  at  Leipzig  has  left  us  sketches  of 
what  he  saw : 

"  In  the  inns  where  the  Wittenberg  students  lodged,  the 
landlord  kept  a  man  standing  with  a  halbert  near  the  table 
to  keep  the  peace  while  the  Leipzig  and  the  Wittenberg 
students  disputed  with  each  other.  I  have  seen  the  same 
myself  in  the  house  of  Herbipolis,  a  bookseller,  where  I  went 
to  dine  ...  for  there  was  at  table  a  Master  Baumgarten 
.  .  .  who  was  so  hot  against  the  Wittenbergers  that  the  host 
had  to  restrain  him  with  a  halbert  to  make  him  keep  the 
peace  so  long  as  the  Wittenbergers  were  in  the  house  and 
sat  and  ate  at  tlie  table  with  him." 

*  Seidemann,    Die    Leipziger    Disp^UtUion    im    Jahre    1619    (Dresden, 
1843). 


THE   LEIPZIG   DISPUTATION  237 

The  University  buildings  at  Leipzig  did  not  contain 
any  hall  large  enough  for  the  audience,  and  Duke  George 
lent  the  use  of  his  great  banqueting-room  for  the  occasion. 
The  discussions  were  preceded  by  a  service  in  the  church. 

"  When  we  got  to  the  church  .  ,  ,  they  sang  a  Mass  with 
twelve  voices  which  had  never  been  heard  before.  After 
Mass  we  went  to  the  Castle,  where  we  found  a  great  guard 
of  burghers  in  their  armour  with  their  best  weapons  and 
their  banners ;  they  were  ordered  to  be  there  twice  a  day, 
from  seven  to  nine  in  the  morning  and  from  two  to  five  in 
the  afternoon,  to  keep  the  peace  while  the  Disputation 
lasted."! 

First,  there  was  a  Disputation  between  Carlstadt  and 
Eck,  and  then,  on  the  fourth  of  July,  Eck  and  Luther  faced 
each  other — both  sons  of  peasants,  met  to  protect  the  old 
or  cleave  a  way  for  the  new. 

It  was  the  first  time  that  Luther  had  ever  met  a  con- 
troversialist of  European  fame.  John  Eck  came  to  Leipzig 
fresh  from  his  triumphs  at  the  great  debates  in  Vienna 
and  Bologna,  and  was  and  felt  himself  to  be  the  hero  of 
the  occasion. 

"  He  had  a  huge  square  body,  a  full  strong  voice  coming 
from  his  chest,  fit  for  a  tragic  actor  or  a  town  crier,  more 
harsh  than  distinct;  his  mouth,  eyes,  and  whole  aspect  gave 
one  the  idea  of  a  butcher  or  a  soldier  rather  than  of  a 
theologian.  He  gave  one  the  idea  of  a  man  striving  to 
overcome  his  opponent  rather  than  of  one  striving  to  win  a 
victory  for  the  truth.  There  was  as  much  sophistry  as  good 
reasoning  in  his  arguments ;  he  was  continually  misquoting 
his  opponents*  words  or  trying  to  give  them  a  meaning  they 
were  not  intended  to  convey." 

"  Martin,"  says  the  same  eye-witness, 

"is  of  middle  height;  his  body  is  slender,  emaciated  by 
study  and  by  cares;  one  can  count  almost  all  the  bones', 
he  stands  in  the  prime  of  his  age;  his  voice  sounds  clear 
and  distinct  .  .  .  however  hard  his  opponent  pressed  him 
he  maintained  his  calmness  and  his  good  nature,  though  in 
debate  he  sometimes  used  bitter  words.  .  .  .  He  carried  a 

*  Ziitschrift  fur  die  historische  Thtologit  for  1872,  p.  534. 


238       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

bunch  of  flowers  in  his  hand,  and  when  the  discussion  became 
hot  he  looked  at  it  and  smelt  it."  ^ 

Eck's  intention  was  to  force  his  opponent  to  make  some 
declaration  which  would  justify  him  in  charging  Luther  with 
being  a  partisan  of  the  mediaeval  heretics,  and  especially  of 
the  Hussites.  He  continually  led  the  debate  away  to  the 
Waldensians,  the  followers  of  Wiclif,  and  the  Bohemians. 
The  audience  swayed  with  a  wave  of  excitement  when 
Luther  was  gradually  forced  to  admit  that  there  might  be 
some  truth  in  some  of  the  Hussite  opinions : 

"One  thing  I  must  tell  which  I  myself  heard  in  the 
Disputation,  and  which  took  place  in  the  presence  of  Duke 
George,  who  came  often  to  the  Disputation  and  listened 
most  attentively ;  once  Dr.  Martin  spoke  these  words  to  Dr. 
Eck  when  hard  pressed  about  John  Huss:  'Dear  Doctor, 
the  Hussite  opinions  are  not  all  wrong.*  Thereupon  said 
Duke  George,  so  loudly  that  the  whole  audience  heard, 
*  God  help  us,  the  pestilence  !*  (Das  wait,  die  Sucht),  and  he 
wagged  his  head  and  placed  his  arms  akimbo.  That  I  my- 
self heard  and  saw,  for  I  sat  almost  between  his  feet  and 
those  of  Duke  Barnim  of  Pomerania,  who  was  then  the 
Eector  of  Wittenberg."  ^ 

So  far  as  the  dialectic  battle  was  concerned,  Eck  had 
been  victorious.  He  had  done  what  he  had  meant  to  do. 
He  had  made  Luther  declare  himself.  All  that  was  now 
needed  was  a  Papal  Bull  against  Luther,  and  the  world 
would  be  rid  of  another  pestilent  heretic.  He  had  done 
what  the  more  politic  Miltitz  had  wished  to  avoid.  He 
had  concentrated  the  attention  of  Germany  on  Luther, 
and  had  made  him  the  central  figure  round  which  all  the 
smouldering  discontent  could  gather.  As  for  Luther,  he 
returned  to  Wittenberg  full  of  melancholy  forebodings. 
They  did  not  prevent  him  preparing  and  publishing  for 
the  German  people  an  account  of  the  Disputation,  which 

*  Petri  Mosellani,  "Epistola  de  DIsput.  Lips."  in  Losober's  Reformations 
Ada  et  Documenta  (Leipzig,  1720-1729),  i.  pp.  242  tf. 

*  Zeitschriftfur  die  historische  Theolog't^  for  1872,  p.  535.     The  diariat  is 
M.  Sebastim  Froscher. 


THE   THREE   TREATISES  239 

was  eagerly  read.  His  arguments  had  been  historical 
rather  than  theological.  He  tried  to  show  that  the  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  supremacy  of  the  Bishop  of  Kome 
was  barely  four  hundred  years  old  in  Western  Europe, 
and  that  it  did  not  exist  in  the  East.  The  Greek  Church, 
he  said,  was  part  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  and  it  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  Pope ;  the  great  Councils  of 
the  Early  Christian  centuries  knew  nothing  about  papal 
supremacy.  Athanasius,  Basil,  the  Gregories,  Cyprian  him- 
self, had  all  taken  Luther's  own  position,  and  were  heretics, 
according  to  Eck.  Luther's  speeches  at  Leipzig  laid  the 
foundation  of  that  modern  historical  criticism  of  institu- 
tions which  has  gone  so  far  in  our  own  days. 

In  some  respects  the  Leipzig  Disputation  was  the 
most  important  point  in  the  career  of  Luther.  It  made 
him  see  for  the  first  time  what  lay  in  his  opposition  to 
Indulgences.  It  made  the  people  see  it  also.  His  attack 
was  no  criticism,  as  he  had  at  first  thought,  of  a  mere  ex- 
crescence on  the  mediaeval  ecclesiastical  system.  He  had 
struck  at  its  centre ;  at  its  ideas  of  a  priestly  mediation 
which  denied  the  right  of  every  believer  to  immediate 
entrance  into  the  very  presence  of  God.  It  was  after  the 
Disputation  at  Leipzig  that  the  younger  German  Humanists 
rallied  round  Luther  to  a  man ;  that  the  burghers  saw  that 
religion  and  opposition  to  priestly  tyranny  were  not  opposite 
things ;  and  that  there  was  room  for  an  honest  attempt  to 
create  a  Germany  for  the  Germans  independent  of  Kome. 
Luther  found  himself  a  new  man  after  Leipzig,  with  a 
new  freedom  and  wider  sympathies.  His  depression  fled. 
Sermons,  pamphlets,  letters  from  his  tireless  pen  flooded 
the  land,  and  were  read  eagerly  by  all  classes  of  the 
population. 

§  4.   The  Three  Treatises} 

Three  of  these  writings  stand  forth  so  pre-eminently 
that  they  deserve  special  notice  :  The  Liberty  of  a  Christian 
MaUf  To  the  Christian  Nobility  of  the  German  Nation,  and 

*  Wace  and  Bucliheim,  Luther's  Primary  JForks  (London,  1896). 


240       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

On  the  Babylonian  Captivity  of  the  Church,  These  three 
books  are  commonly  called  in  Germany  the  Three  Greai 
Beformation  Treatises^  and  the  title  befits  them  welL  They 
were  all  written  during  the  year  1520,  after  three  years 
spent  in  controversy,  at  a  time  when  Luther  felt  that  he 
had  completely  broken  from  Eome,  and  when  he  knew  that 
he  had  nothing  to  expect  from  Eome  but  a  sentence  of 
excommunication.  His  teaching  may  have  varied  in  details 
afterwards,  but  in  all  essential  positions  it  remained  what 
is  to  be  found  in  these  books. 

The  tract  on  The  Liberty  of  a  Christian  Man,  **  a  very 
small  book  so  far  as  the  paper  is  concerned,"  said  Luther, 
"  but  one  containing  the  whole  sum  of  the  Christian  life," 
had  a  somewhat  pathetic  history.  Miltitz,  hoping  against 
hope  that  the  Pope  would  not  push  things  to  extremities, 
had  asked  Luther  to  write  out  a  short  summary  of  his  in- 
most beliefs  and  send  it  to  His  Holiness.  Luther  con- 
sented, and  this  little  volume  was  the  result.  It  has  for 
preface  Luther's  letter  to  Pope  Leo  X.,  which  concludes 
thus :  "  I,  in  my  poverty,  have  no  other  present  to  make 
you,  nor  do  you  need  to  be  enriched  by  anything  but  a 
spiritual  gift."  It  was  probably  the  last  of  the  three 
published  (Oct.  1520),  but  it  contains  the  principles  which 
underlie  the  other  two. 

The  booklet  is  a  brief  statement,  free  from  all  theo- 
logical subtleties,  of  the  priesthood  of  all  believers  which  is 
a  consequence  of  the  fact  of  justification  by  faith  alone.  Its 
note  of  warning  to  Eome,  and  its  educational  value  for  pious 
people  in  the  sixteenth  century,  consisted  in  its  showing 
that  the  man  who  fears  God  and  trusts  in  Him  need  not 
fear  the  priests  nor  the  Church.  The  first  part  proves 
that  every  spiritual  possession  which  a  man  has  or  can 
have  must  be  traced  back  to  his  faith ;  if  he  has  faith,  he 
has  all ;  if  he  has  not  faith,  he  has  nothing.  It  is  the 
possession  of  faith  which  gives  liberty  to  a  Christian  man ; 
God  is  with  him,  who  can  be  against  him  ? 

"  Here  you  will  ask, '  If  all  who  are  in  the  Church  are 
priests,  by  what  character  are  those  whom  we  now  call 


THE   THREE   TREATISES  241 

priests  to  be  distinguished  from  the  laity  ?  *  I  reply,  By  the 
use  of  those  words  priests,  clergy,  spiritual  person,  ecclesiastic, 
an  injustice  has  been  done,  since  they  have  been  transferred 
from  the  remaining  body  of  Christians  to  those  few  who  are 
now,  by  a  hurtful  custom,  called  ecclesiastics.  For  the  Holy 
Scripture  makes  no  distinction  between  them,  except  that 
those  who  are  now  boastfully  called  Popes,  Bishops,  and 
Lords,  it  calls  ministers,  servants,  and  stewards,  who  are  to 
serve  the  rest  in  the  ministry  of  the  Word,  for  teaching  the 
faith  of  Christ  and  the  liberty  of  believers.  For  though  it 
is  true  that  we  are  all  equally  priests,  yet  cannot  we,  nor 
ought  we  if  we  could,  all  to  minister  and  teach  publicly." 

The  second  part  shows  that  everything  that  a  Christian 
man  does  must  come  from  his  faith.  It  may  be  necessary 
to  use  all  the  ceremonies  of  divine  service  which  past 
generations  have  found  useful  to  promote  the  religious 
life;  perhaps  to  fast  and  practise  mortifications  of  the 
flesh ;  but  if  such  things  are  to  be  really  profitable,  they 
must  be  kept  in  their  proper  place.  They  are  good  deeds 
not  in  the  sense  of  making  a  man  good,  but  as  the  signs  of 
his  faith ;  they  are  to  be  practised  with  joy  because  they 
are  done  for  the  sake  of.  the  God  who  has  united  Himself 
with  man  through  Jesus  Christ. 

Nothing  that  Luther  has  written  more  clearly  mani- 
fests that  combination  of  revolutionary  daring  and  wise 
conservatism  which  was  characteristic  of  the  man.  There 
is  no  attempt  to  sweep  away  any  ecclesiastical  machinery, 
provided  only  it  be  kept  in  its  proper  place  as  a  means 
to  an  end.  But  religious  ceremonies  are  not  an  end  in 
themselves;  and  if  through  human  corruption  and  neglect 
of  the  plain  precepts  of  God's  word  they  hinder  instead 
of  help  the  true  growth  of  the  soul,  they  ought  to  be 
swept  away;  and  the  fact  that  the  soul  of  man  needs 
absolutely  nothing  in  the  last  resort  but  the  word  of  God 
dwelling  in  him,  gives  men  courage  and  calmness  in  de- 
manding their  reformation. 

Luther  applied  those  principles  to  the  reformation  of 
the  Church  in  his  book  on  the  Babylonian  Captivity  of  the 
Church  (Sept.-Oct.  1520).  He  subjected  the  elaborate 
'''^    i6* 


242       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

sacramental  system  of  the  Church  to  a  searching  criticism, 
and  concluded  that  there  are  only  two,  or  perhaps  three, 
scriptural  sacraments — the  Eucharist,  Baptism,  and  Pen- 
ance. He  denounced  the  doctrine  of  Transubstantiation 
as  a  "  monstrous  phantom  "  which  the  Church  of  the  first 
twelve  centuries  knew  nothing  about,  and  said  that  any 
endeavour  to  define  the  precise  manner  of  Christ's  Presence 
in  the  sacrament  is  simply  indecent  curiosity.  Perhaps  the 
most  important  practical  portion  of  the  book  deals  with  the 
topic  of  Christian  marriage.  In  no  sphere  of  human  life 
has  the  Eoman  Church  done  more  harm  by  interfering  with 
simple  scriptural  directions : 

"What  shall  we  say  of  those  impious  human  laws  by 
which  this  divinely  appointed  manner  of  life  has  been  en- 
tangled and  tossed  up  and  down  ?  Good  God !  it  is  horrible 
to  look  upon  the  temerity  of  the  tyrants  of  Eome,  who  thus, 
according  to  their  caprices,  at  one  time  annul  marriages  and 
at  another  time  enforce  them.  Is  the  human  race  given 
over  to  their  caprice  for  nothing  but  to  be  mocked  and 
abused  in  every  way,  that  these  men  may  do  what  they 
please  with  it  for  the  sake  of  their  own  fatal  gains  ?  .  .  .  And 
what  do  they  sell  ?  The  shame  of  men  and  women,  a  mer- 
chandise worthy  of  these  traffickers,  who  surpass  all  that 
is  most  sordid  and  most  disgusting  in  their  avarice  and 
impiety." 

Luther  points  out  that  there  is  a  clear  scriptural  law  on  the 
degrees  within  which  marriage  is  unlawful,  and  says  that  no 
human  regulations  ought  to  forbid  marriages  outside  these 
degrees  or  permit  them  within.  He  also  comes  to  the 
conclusion  that  divorce  a  mensa  et  tJioro  is  clearly  per- 
mitted in  Scripture;  though  he  says  that  personally  he 
hates  divorce,  and  "prefers  bigamy  to  it." 

The  appeal  To  the  Christian  Nobility  of  the  German 
Nation  made  the  greatest  immediate  impression.  It  was 
wffiten  in  haste,  but  must  have  been  long  thought  over. 
Luther  began  the  introduction  on  June  23rd  (1520);  the 
book  was  ready  by  the  middle  of  August ;  and  by  the  1 8th, 
four  thousand  copies  were  in  circulation  throughout  Ger- 
many, and  the  presses  could  not  print  fast  enough  for  the 


THE   THREE   TREATISES  243 

demand.  It  was  a  call  to  all  Germany  to  unite  against 
Eome. 

It  was  nobly  comprehensive:  it  grasped  the  whole 
situation,  and  summed  up  with  vigour  and  clearness  all 
the  German  grievances  which  had  hitherto  been  stated 
separately  and  weakly;  it  brought  forward  every  partial 
proposal  of  reform,  however  incomplete,  and  quickened  it  by 
setting  it  in  its  proper  place  in  one  combined  scheme.  All 
the  parts  were  welded  together  by  a  simple  and  courageous 
faith,  and  made  living  by  the  moral  earnestness  which 
pervaded  the  whole. 

Luther  struck  directly  at  the  imaginary  mysterious 
semi-supernatural  power  supposed  to  belong  to  the  Church 
and  the  priesthood  which  had  held  Europe  in  awed  submis- 
sion for  so  many  centuries.  Eeform  had  been  impossible, 
the  appeal  said,  because  the  walls  behind  which  Eome  lay 
entrenched  had  been  left  standing — walls  of  straw  and 
paper,  but  in  appearance  formidable.  These  sham  fortifica- 
tions are :  the  Spiritual  Power  which  is  believed  to  be 
superior  to  the  temporal  power  of  kings  and  princes,  the 
conception  that  no  one  can  interpret  Scripture  hut  the  Pope, 
the  idea  that  no  one  can  summon  a  General  Council  but 
the  Bishop  of  Pome.  These  are  the  threefold  lines  of 
fortification  behind  which  the  Eoman  Curia  has  entrenched 
itself,  and  the  German  people  has  long  believed  that  they 
are  impregnable.     Luther  sets  to  work  to  demolish  them. 

The  Eomanists  assert  that  the  Pope,  bishops,  priests, 
and  monks  belong  to  and  constitute  the  spiritual  estate^ 
while  princes,  lords,  artisans,  and  peasants  are  the  temporal 
estate,  which  is  subject  to  the  spiritual.  But  this  spiritual 
estate  is  a  mere  delusion.  The  real  spiritual  estate  is  the 
whole  body  of  believers  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  they  are 
spiritual  because  Jesus  has  made  all  His  followers  priests 
to  God  and  to  His  Christ.  A  cobbler  belongs  to  the 
spiritual  estate  as  truly  as  a  bishop.  The  clergy  are 
distinguished  from  the  laity  not  by  an  indelible  character 
imposed  upon  them  in  a  divine  mystery  called  ordination, 
but  because  they  have  been  set  apart  to  do  a  particular 


244       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

kind  of  work  in  the  commonwealth.  If  a  Pope,  bishop, 
priest,  or  monk  neglects  to  do  the  work  he  is  there  to  do, 
he  deserves  to  be  punished  as  much  as  a  careless  mason 
or  tailor,  and  is  as  accountable  to  the  civil  authorities. 
The  spiritual  priesthood  of  all  believers,  the  gift  of  the  faith 
which  justifies,  has  shattered  the  first  and  most  formidable 
of  these  papal  fortifications. 

It  is  foolish  to  say  that  the  Pope  alone  can  inferp^rt 
Scripture.  If  that  were  true,  where  is  the  need  of  Holy 
Scriptures  at  all  ? 

"Let  us  burn  them,  and  content  ourselves  with  the 
unlearned  gentlemen  at  Kome,  in  whom  the  Holy  Ghost 
alone  dwells,  who,  however,  can  dwell  in  pious  souls  only. 
If  I  had  not  read  it,  I  could  never  have  believed  that  the 
devil  should  have  put  forth  such  follies  at  Kome  and  find  a 
following." 

The  Holy  Scripture  is  open  to  all,  and  can  be  interpreted 
by  all  true  believers  who  have  the  mind  of  Christ  and 
approach  the  word  of  God  humbly  seeking  enlightenment. 
The  third  wall  falls  with  the  other  two.  It  is  nonsense 
to  say  that  the  Pope  alone  can  call  a  Council.  We  are 
plainly  taught  in  Scripture  that  if  our  brother  offends  we 
are  to  tell  it  to  the  Church ;  and  if  the  Pope  offends,  and 
be  often  does,  we  can  only  obey  Scripture  by  calling  a 
Council.  Every  individual  Christian  has  a  right  to  do 
his  best  to  have  it  summoned ;  the  temporal  powers  are 
there  to  enforce  his  wishes ;  Emperors  called  General 
Councils  in  the  earlier  ages  of  the  Church, 
j  The  straw  and  paper  walls  having  been  thus  cleared 
'  away,  Luther  proceeds  to  state  his  indictment.  There  is 
in  Eome  one  who  calls  himself  the  Vicar  of  Christ,  and 
who  lives  in  a  state  of  singular  resemblance  to  our  Lord 
and  to  St.  Peter,  His  apostle.  For  this  man  wears  a 
triple  crown  (a  single  one  does  not  content  him),  and  keeps 
up  such  a  state  that  he  needs  a  larger  personal  revenue 
than  tlie  Emperor.  He  has  surrounding  him  a  number  uf 
men,  called  cardinals,  whose  only  apparent  use  is  that  they 
serve  to  draw  to  themselves  the  revenues  of  the  richest 


THE   THREE    TREATISES  245 

convents,  endowments,  and  benefices  in  Europe,  and  spend 
the  money  thus  obtained  in  keeping  up  the  state  of  a  great 
monarch  in  Eome.  When  it  is  impossible  to  seize  the 
whole  revenue  of  an  ecclesiastical  benefice,  the  Curia  joins 
some  ten  or  twenty  together,  and  mulcts  each  in  a  good 
round  sum  for  the  benefit  of  the  cardinal.  Thus  the 
priory  of  Wiirzburg  gives  one  thousand  gulden  yearly,  and 
Bamberg,  Mainz,  and  Trier  pay  their  quotas.  The  papal 
court  is  enormous, — three  thousand  papal  secretaries,  and 
hangers-on  innumerable ;  and  all  are  waiting  for  German 
benefices,  whose  duties  they  never  fulfil,  as  wolves  wait 
for  a  flock  of  sheep.  Germany  pays  more  to  the  Curia 
than  it  gives  to  its  own  Emperor.  Then  look  at  the  way 
Eome  robs  the  whole  German  land.  Long  ago  the 
Emperor  permitted  the  Pope  to  take  the  half  of  the  first 
year's  income  from  every  benefice — the  Annates — to  provide 
for  a  war  against  the  Turks.  The  money  was  never  spent 
for  the  purpose  destined ;  yet  it  has  been  regularly  paid 
for  a  hundred  years,  and  the  Pope  demands  it  as  a  regular 
and  legitimate  tax,  and  uses  it  to  pay  posts  and  offices  at 
Eome. 

"  Whenever  there  is  any  pretence  of  fighting  the  Turk, 
they  send  out  commissions  for  collecting  money,  and  often 
proclaim  Indulgences  under  the  same  pretext.  .  .  .  They 
think  that  we,  Germans,  will  always  remain  such  great 
fools,  and  that  we  will  go  on  giving  money  to  satisfy  their 
unspeakable  greed,  though  we  see  plainly  that  neither 
Annates  nor  Indulgence  -  money  nor  anything  —  not  one 
farthing — goes  against  the  Turks,  but  all  goes  into  their 
bottomless  sack,  .  .  .  and  all  this  is  done  in  the  name  of 
Christ  and  of  St.  Peter." 

The  chicanery  used  to  get  possession  of  German  benefices 
for  officials  of  the  Curia,  the  exactions  on  the  bestowal  of 
the  'pallium^  the  trafficking  in  exemptions  and  permissions 
to  evade  laws  ecclesiastical  and  moral,  are  all  trenchantly 
described.  The  most  shameless  are  those  connected  with 
marriage.     The  Curial  Court  is  described  as  a  place 

"where  vows  are  annulled;  where  a  monk  gets  leave  to 
quit  his  cloister ;  where  priests  can  enter  the  married  life 


246       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

for  money ;  where  bastards  can  become  legitimate,  and 
dishonour  and  shame  may  arrive  at  high  honours,  and  all 
evil  repute  and  disgrace  is  knighted  and  ennobled ;  where 
a  marriage  is  suffered  that  is  in  a  forbidden  degree,  or  has 
some  other  defect.  .  .  .  There  is  a  buying  and  selling,  a 
changing,  blustering,  and  bargaining,  cheating  and  lying, 
robbing  and  stealing,  debauchery  and  villainy,  and  all  kinds 
of  contempt  of  God,  that  Antichrist  himself  could  not  reign 
worse." 

The  plan  of  reform  sketched  includes  —  the  complete 
abolition  of  the  power  of  the  Pope  over  the  State;  the 
creation  of  a  national  German  Church,  with  an  ecclesiastical 
Council  of  its  own  to  be  the  final  court  of  appeal  for 
Germany,  and  to  represent  the  German  Church  as  the 
Diet  did  the  German  State ;  some  internal  religious 
reforms,  such  as  the  limitation  of  the  number  of  pilgrimages, 
which  were  destroying  morality  and  creating  a  distaste  for 
honest  work ;  reductions  in  the  mendicant  orders  and  in 
the  number  of  vagrants  who  thronged  the  roads,  and  were 
a  scandal  in  the  towns. 

"It  is  of  much  more  importance  to  consider  what  is 
necessary  for  the  salvation  of  the  common  people  than  what 
St.  Francis,  or  St.  Dominic,  or  St.  Augustine,  or  any  other 
man  laid  down,  especially  as  things  have  not  turned  out  as 
they  expected." 

He  proposes  the  inspection  of  all  convents  and  nunneries, 
and  permission  given  to  those  who  are  dissatisfied  with 
their  monastic  lives  to  return  to  the  world ;  the  limitation 
of  ecclesiastical  holy  days,  which  are  too  often  nothing  but 
scenes  of  drunkenness,  gluttony,  and  debauchery  ;  a  married 
priesthood,  and  an  end  put  to  the  degrading  concubinage 
of  the  German  priests. 

**  We  see  how  the  priesthood  is  fallen,  and  how  many  a 
poor  priest  is  encumbered  with  a  woman  and  children,  and 
burdened  in  his  conscience,  and  no  one  does  anything  to 
help  him,  though  he  might  very  well  be  helped.  ...  I  will 
not  conceal  my  honest  counsel,  nor  withhold  comfort  from 
that  unhappy  crowd  who  now  live  in  trouble  with  wife  and 
children,  and  nimain  in  shame  with  a  heavy  conscience, 


THE   PAPAL   BULL  247 

hearing  their  wife  called  a  priest's  harlot,  and  their  children 
bastards.  ...  I  say  that  these  two  (who  are  minded  in 
their  hearts  to  live  together  in  conjugal  fidelity)  are  surely 
married  before  God." 

The  appeal  concludes  with  some  solemn  words  addressed 
to  the  luxury  and  licensed  immorality  of  the  German 
towns. 

None  of  Luther's  writings  produced  such  an  instan- 
taneous effect  as  this.  It  was  not  the  first  programme 
urging  common  action  in  the  interests  of  a  united  Germany, 
but  it  was  the  most  complete,  and  was  recognised  to  be  so 
by  all  who  were  working  for  a  Germany  for  the  Germans. 

The  three  "  Eeformation  treatises  "  were  the  statement 
of  Luther's  case  laid  before  the  people  of  the  Fatherland, 
and  were  a  very  effectual  antidote  to  the  Papal  Bull 
excommunicating  him,  which  was  ready  for  publication  in 
Germany. 

§  5.  The  Papal  Bull 

The  Bull,  Exurge  Domine,  was  scarcely  worthy  of  the 
occasion.  The  Pope  seems  to  have  left  its  construction  in 
the  hands  of  Prierias,  Cajetan,  and  Eck,  and  the  contents 
seem  to  show  that  Eck  had  the  largest  share  in  framing 
it.  Much  of  it  reads  like  an  echo  of  Eck's  statements  at 
Leipzig  a  year  before.  It  began  pathetically :  "  Arise,  0 
Lord,  plead  Thine  own  cause ;  remember  how  the  foolish 
man  reproacheth  Thee  daily;  the  foxes  are  wasting  Thy 
vineyard,  which  Thou  hast  given  to  Thy  Vicar  Peter  ;  the 
boar  out  of  the  wood  doth  waste  it,  and  the  wild  beast  of 
the  field  doth  devour  it."  St.  Peter  is  invoked,  and  the 
Pope's  distress  at  the  news  of  Luther's  misdeeds  is  described 
at  length.  The  most  disturbing  thing  is  that  the  errors  of 
the  Greeks  and  of  the  Bohemians  were  being  revived,  and 
that  in  Germany,  which  had  hitherto  been  so  faithful  to 
the  Holy  See.  Then  came  forty-one  propositions,  said 
to  be  Luther's,  which  are  condemned  as  "heretical  or 
scandalous,  or  false  or  offensive  to  pious  ears,  or  seducing 
to  simple  minds,  and  standing  in  the  way  of  the  Catholic 


248       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

faith."  *  All  faithful  people  were  ordered  to  burn  Luther's 
books  wherever  they  could  find  them.  Luther  himself  had 
refused  to  come  to  Eome  and  submit  to  instruction;  he 
had  even  appealed  to  a  General  Council,  contrary  to  the 
decrees  of  Julius  II.  and  Pius  n. ;  he  was  therefore 
inhibited  from  preaching;  he  and  all  who  followed  him 
were  ordered  to  make  public  recantation  within  sixty 
days ;  if  they  did  not,  they  were  to  be  treated  as  heretics, 
were  to  be  seized  and  imprisoned  by  the  magistrates,  and 
all  towns  or  districts  which  sheltered  them  were  to  be 
placed  imder  an  interdict. 

Among  the  forty-one  propositions  condemned  was  one 
— that  the  burning  of  heretics  was  a  sin  against  the  Spirit 
of  Christ — to  which  the  Pope  seemed  to  attach  special 
significance,  so  often  did  he  repeat  it  in  letters  to  the 
Elector  Frederick  and  other  authorities  in  Germany.  The 
others  may  be  arranged  in  four  classes — against  Luther's 
opinions  about  Indulgences;  his  statements  about  Purgatory; 
his  declarations  that  the  efficacy  of  the  sacraments  depended 
upon  the  spiritual  condition  of  those  who  received  them ; 
that  penance  was  an  outward  sign  of  sorrow,  and  that  good 
works  (ecclesiastical  and  moral)  were  to  be  regarded  as  the 
signs  of  faith  rather  than  as  making  men  actually  righteous  ; 
his  denial  of  the  later  curial  assertions  of  the  nature  of  the 
papal  monarchy  over  the  Church.  Luther's  opinions  on  all 
these  points  could  be  supported  by  abundant  testimony 
from  the  earlier  ages  of  the  Church,  and  most  of  his 
criticisms  were  directed  against  theories  which  had  not 
been  introduced  before  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
The  Bull  made  no  attempt  to  argue  about  the  truth  of  the 
positions  taken  in  its  sentences.  There  was  nothing  done 
to  show  that  Luther's  opinions  were  wrong.  The  one 
dominant  note  running  all  through  tlie  papal  deliverance 
was  the  simple  assertion  of  the  Pope's  right  to  order  any 
discussion  to  cease  at  his  command. 

This  did  not  help  to  commend  the  Bull  to  the  people 
of  Germany,  and  was  specially  unsuited  to  an  age  of  restless 

^  Denzinger,  Enchiridion,  etc.  p.  176. 


THE   PAPAL   BULL  249 

mental  activity.  The  method  adopted  for  publishing  it 
in  Germany  was  still  less  calculated  to  win  respect  for  its 
decisions.  The  publication  was  entrusted  to  John  Eck 
of  Ingolstadt,  who  was  universally  recognised  as  Luther's 
personal  enemy ;  and  the  hitherto  unheard  of  liberty  was 
granted  to  him  to  insert  at  his  pleasure  the  names  of  a 
certain  number  of  persons,  and  to  summon  them  to  appear 
before  the  Eoman  Curia.  He  showed  how  unfit  he  was 
for  this  responsible  task  by  inserting  the  names  of  men 
who  had  criticised  or  satirised  him — Adelmann,  Pirkheimer, 
Carlstadt,  and  three  others.^ 

Eck  discovered  that  it  was  an  easier  matter  to  get 
permission  from  the  Eoman  Curia  to  frame  a  Bull  against 
the  man  who  had  stopped  the  sale  of  Indulgences,  and 
was  drying  up  a  great  source  of  revenue,  than  to  publish 
the  Bull  in  Germany.  It  was  thought  at  Rome  that  no 
man  had  more  influence  among  the  bishops  and  Uni- 
versities, but  the  Curia  soon  learnt  that  it  had  made  a 
mistake.  The  Universities  stood  upon  their  privileges,  and 
would  have  nothing  to  do  with  John  Eck.  The  bishops 
made  all  manner  of  technical  objections.  Many  persons 
affected  to  believe  that  the  Bull  was  not  authentic;  and 
Luther  himself  did  not  disdain  to  take  this  line  in  his 
tract,  Against  the  Execrable  Bull  of  Antichrist.  Eck,  who 
had  come  down  to  Germany  inflated  with  vanity,  found 
himself  mocked  and  scorned.  Pirkheimer  dubbed  him 
gehobelter  Eck,  Eck  "  polished  off,"  and  the  epithet  stuck. 
Nor  was  the  pubhcation  any  easier  when  the  pretence 
of  unauthenticity  could  be  maintained  no  longer.  The 
University    of    Wittenberg   refused   to    publish   the   Bull, 

*  In  a  pamphlet  written  by  Eck  in  1519,  he  had  asserted  that  all  the 
theologians  in  Germany  were  opposed  to  Luther  save  a  few  unlearned  canons. 
This  called  forth,  towards  the  end  of  the  year,  Tfie  Answer  of  an  Unlearned 
Canon,  which  was  generally  ascribed  to  Bernard  Adelmann,  a  canon  of 
Augsburg,  but  which  was  really  written  by  Oecolampadius.  Pirkheimer 
had  written  a  caustic  attack  on  Eck  in  a  satire,  in  which  German  coarseness 
was  clothed  in  elegant  latinity,  entitled  Eccius  Dedolatus  {The  Comet 
planed  off^  Eck  being  the  German  for  "  comer  "),  published  in  LateinUchs 
Litteraturdenkmdler  des  15  und  16  Jdhrhundertes  (Berlin,  1891).  Carlstadt 
had  opposed  Eck  at  Leipzig. 


250       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

on  the  ground  that  the  Pope  would  not  have  permitted 
its  issue  had  he  known  the  true  state  of  matters,  and 
they  blamed  Eck  for  misinforming  His  Holiness :  the 
Council  of  Electoral  Saxony  agreed  with  the  Senate ; 
and  their  action  was  generally  commended.  Spalatin 
said  that  he  had  seen  at  least  thirty  letters  from  great 
princes  and  learned  men  of  all  districts  in  Germany, 
from  Pomerania  to  Switzerland,  and  from  the  Breisgau 
to  Bohemia,  encouraging  Luther  to  stand  firm.  Eck 
implored  the  bishops  of  the  dioceses  surrounding  Witten- 
berg— Merseburg,  Meissen,  and  Brandenburg — to  publish 
the  Bull.     They  were  either  unwilling  or  powerless. 

Luther  had  been  expecting  a  Bull  against  him  ever 
since  the  Leipzig  Disputation.  His  correspondence  reveals 
that  he  met  it  undismayed.  What  harm  could  a  papal 
Bull  do  to  a  man  whose  faith  had  given  him  fellowship 
with  God  ?  What  truth  could  there  be  in  a  Bull  which 
clearly  contradicted  the  Holy  Scriptures?  St.  Paul  has 
warned  us  against  believing  an  angel  from  heaven  if  he 
uttered  words  different  from  the  Scriptures,  which  are 
our  strength  and  our  consolation ;  why  should  we  pin 
our  faith  to  a  Pope  or  a  Council  ?  The  Bull  had  done 
one  thing  for  him,  it  had  made  him  an  excommunicated 
man,  and  therefore  had  freed  him  from  his  monastic 
vows.  He  could  leave  the  convent  when  he  liked,  only 
he  did  not  choose  to  do  so.  When  he  heard  that  his 
writings  had  been  burnt  as  heretical  by  order  of  the  Papal 
Legates,  he  resolved  to  retaliate.  It  was  no  sudden  de- 
cision. Eleven  months  previously  he  had  assured  Spalatin 
(January  1520)  that  if  Rome  condemned  and  burnt  his 
writings  he  would  condemn  and  burn  the  papal  Decretal 
Laws.  On  December  10th  (1520)  he  posted  a  notice  invit- 
ing the  Wittenberg  students  to  witness  the  burning  of  the 
papal  Constitutions  and  the  books  of  Scholastic  Theology  at 
nine  o'clock  in  the  morning.^     A  multitude  of  students, 

*  A  copy  of  Luther's  notice  has  been  preserved  in  the  MS.  **  Annals  "  of 
Peter  Schumann  in  the  Zwickau  RatsschulhihUothek  at  Zwickau.  It  has 
been  printed  in  Kolde's  Analecta  Lutherana  (Gotha,  1883),  p.  26 :  ''Qui* 


THE  BURNING  OF  THE  BULL         251 

burghers,  and  professors  met  in  the  open  space  outside  the 
Elster  Gate  between  the  walls  and  the  river  Elbe.  A  great 
bonfire  had  been  built.  An  oak  tree  planted  long  ago  still 
marks  the  spot.  One  of  the  professors  kindled  the  pile ; 
Luther  laid  the  books  of  the  Decretals  on  the  glowing  mass, 
and  they  caught  the  flames ;  then  amid  solemn  silence  he 
placed  a  copy  of  the  Bull  on  the  fire,  saying  in  Latin:  As 
thou  hast  wasted  with  anxiety  the  Holy  One  of  God,  so  may 
the  eternal  flames  waste  thee  (Quia  tu  conturhasti  Sanctum 
Domini,  ideoque  te  conturhet  ignis  etermis).  He  waited  till 
the  paper  was  consumed,  and  then  with  his  friends  and 
fellow-professors  he  went  back  to  the  town.  Some  hundreds 
of  students  remained  standing  round  the  fire.  For  a  while 
they  were  sobered  by  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion  and 
sang  the  Te  Deum.  Then  a  spirit  of  mischief  seized  them, 
and  they  began  singing  funeral  dirges  in  honour  of  the 
burnt  Decretals.  They  got  a  peasant's  cart,  fixed  in  it  a 
pole  on  which  they  hung  a  six-foot-long  banner  emblazoned 
with  the  Bull,  piled  the  small  cart  with  the  books  of  Eck, 
Eraser,  and  other  Eomish  controversialists,  hauled  it  along 
the  streets  and  out  through  the  Elster  Gate,  and,  throwing 
books  and  Bull  on  the  glowing  embers  of  the  bonfire,  they 
burnt  them.  Sobered  again,  they  sang  the  Te  Deum  and 
finally  dispersed. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  for  us  in  the  twentieth  century 
to  imagine  the  thrill  that  went  through  Germany,  and 
indeed  through  all  Europe,  when  the  news  sped  that  a  poor 
monk  had  burnt  the  Pope's  Bull.  Papal  Bulls  had  been 
burnt  before  Luther's  days,  but  the  burners  had  been  for 
the  most  part  powerful  monarchs.  This  time  it  was  done 
by  a  monk,  with  nothing  but  his  courageous  faith  to  back 
him.     It  meant  that  the  individual  soul  had  discovered  its 

quis  veritatis  Evangelicae  studio  teneatur.  Adesto  sub  horam  nonam,  modo 
ad  templum  S.  Crucis  extra  moenia  oppidi,  ubi  pro  veteri  et  apostolico  ritu 
impii  pontificiarum  constitutionum  et  scholasticae  theologiae  libri  crema- 
buntur  quandoquidem  eo  processit  audatia  inimicorum  Evangelii,  ut  pios  ac 
evangelicos  Luteri  exusserit.  Age  pia  et  studiosa  juventus  ad  hoc  pium  ac 
religiosum  spectaculum  constituito.  Foitassis  euim  nimo  tempua  eat  quo 
revelari  Antichristum  opportuit." 


252       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

true  value.     If  eras  can  be  dated,  modern  history  began  on 
December  10  th,  1520. 


§  6.  Luther  the  Representative  of  Germany. 

Hitherto  we  have  followed  Luther*s  personal  career 
exclusively.  It  may  be  well  to  turn  aside  for  a  little  to 
see  how  the  sympathy  of  many  classes  of  the  people  was 
gathering  round  him. 

The  representatives  of  foreign  States  who  were  present 
at  the  Diet  of  Worms,  of  England,  Spain,  and  Venice,  all 
wrote  home  to  their  respective  governments  about  the 
extraordinary  popularity  which  Luther  enjoyed  among 
almost  every  class  of  his  fellow-countrymen  ;  and,  as  we  shall 
see,  the  despatches  of  Aleander,  the  papal  nuncio  at  the 
Diet,  are  full  of  statements  and  complaints  which  confirm 
these  reports.  This  popularity  had  been  growing  since 
1517,  and  there  are  traces  that  many  thoughtful  men  had 
been  attracted  to  Luther  some  years  earlier.  The  accounts 
of  Luther's  interview  with  Cardinal  Cajetan  at  Augsburg, 
and  his  attitude  at  the  Leipzig  Disputation,  had  given  a 
great  impulse  to  the  veneration  with  which  people  regarded 
him ;  but  the  veneration  itself  had  been  quietly  growing, 
apart  from  any  striking  incidents  in  his  career.  The 
evidence  for  what  follows  has  been  collected  chiefly  from 
such  private  correspondence  as  has  descended  to  us ;  and 
most  stress  has  been  laid  on  letters  which  were  not 
addressed  to  Luther,  and  which  were  never  meant  to  be 
seen  by  him.  Men  wrote  to  each  other  about  him,  and  de- 
scribed the  impression  he  was  making  on  themselves  and 
on  the  immediate  circle  of  their  acquaintances.  We  learn 
from  such  letters  not  merely  the  fact  of  the  esteem,  but  what 
were  the  characteristics  in  the  man  which  called  it  forth.^ 

A  large  part  of  the  evidence  comes  from  the  corre- 
spondence of   educated   men,  who,  if   they   were   not  all 

^  Fr.  V.  Bezold  has  some  excellent  pages  on  this  subject  in  his  Oeschichte 
der  deutschen  Ileformatimi  (Berlin,  1890),  pp.  278  ff.  I  have  used  the 
material  he  has  collected,  and  added  tc  it  from  my  own  reading. 


LUTHER  THE  REPRESENTATIVE  OF  GERMANY   253 

Humanists  strictly  so  called,  belonged  to  that  increasing 
class    on    whom   the    New    Learning   had   made   a    great 
impression,  and  had  produced  the  characteristic  habit  of 
mind  which  belonged  to  its  possessors.     The  attitude  and 
work  of  Erasmus  had  prepared  them  to  appreciate  Luther. 
The  monkish  opponents  of  the  great  Humanist  had  been 
thoroughly  in  the  right  when  they  feared  the  effects  of  his 
revolutionary  ways   of   thinking,  however   they  might   be 
accompanied  with  appeals  against  all  revolutionary  action. 
He  had  exhibited  his  idea  of  what  a  life  of  personal  religion 
ought  to  be  in  his  Enchiridion ;  he  had  exposed  the  mingled 
Judaism  and  paganism   of   a  great   part   of   the   popular 
religion ;  he  had  poured  scorn  on  the  trifling  subtleties  of 
scholastic  theology,  and   had   asked   men    to   return  to  a 
simple  "  Christian  Philosophy  " ;  above  all,  he  had  insisted 
that  Christianity  could  only  renew  its  youth  by  going  back 
to  the  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  especially  of  the 
New  Testament ;  and  he  had  aided  his  contemporaries  to 
make  this  return  by  his  edition  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
by  his  efforts  to  bring  within  their  reach  the  writings  of 
the  earlier   Church   Fathers.     His  Humanist  followers  in 
Germany  believed  that  they  saw  in  Luther  a  man  who 
was  doing  what  their  leader  urged  all  men  to  do.     They 
saw  in  Luther  an  Erasmus,  who  was  going  to  the  root  of 
things.     He  was   rejecting  with   increasing  determination 
the  bewildering  sophistries  of  Scholasticism,  and,  what  was 
more,  he  was  showing  how  many  of  these  had  arisen  by 
exalting  the  authority  of  the  pagan  Aristotle  over  that  of 
St.  Paul   and   St.  Augustine.      He   had   painfully   studied 
these  Schoolmen,  and  could  speak  with  an  authority  on 
this  matter ;  for  he  was  a  learned  theologian.     The  reports 
of  his  lectures,  which  were  spreading  throughout  Germany, 
informed  them  that  he  based   his   teaching   on   a   simple 
exposition  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  the  Vulgate  version, 
which  was  sanctioned  by  the  mediitival   Church.      He  had 
revolted,   and   was    increasingly   in    revolt,   against    those 
abuses  in  the  ordinary  religious  life  which  were  encouraged 
from  sordid  motives  by  the  Roman  Curia, — abuses  which 


254       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

Erasmus  had  pierced  through  and  through  with  the  light 
darts  of  his  sarcasm ;  and  Luther  knew,  as  Erasmus  did 
not,  what  lie  was  speaking  about,  for  he  had  surrendered 
himself  to  that  popular  religion,  and  had  sought  in  it 
desperately  for  a  means  of  reconciliation  with  God  without 
succeeding  in  his  quest.  They  saw  him  insisting,  with  a 
strenuousness  no  Humanist  had  exhibited,  on  the  Humanist 
demand  that  every  man  had  a  right  to  stand  true  to  his 
own  personal  conscientious  convictions.  If  some  of  them, 
like  Erasmus,  in  spite  of  their  scorn  of  monkery,  still 
believed  that  the  highest  type  of  the  religious  life  was  a 
sincere  self-sacrificing  Franciscan  monk,  they  saw  their 
ideal  in  the  Augustinian  Eremite,  whose  life  had  never 
been  stained  by  any  monkish  scandal,  and  who  had  been 
proclaimed  by  his  brother  monks  to  be  a  model  of  personal 
holiness.  They  were  sure  that  when  he  pled  heroically 
for  the  freedom  of  the  religious  life,  his  courage,  which 
they  could  not  emulate,  rested  on  a  depth  and  strength  of 
personal  piety  which  they  sadly  confessed  they  themselves 
did  not  possess.  If  they  complained  at  times  that  Luther 
spoke  too  strongly  against  the  Pope,  they  admitted  that  he 
was  going  to  the  root  of  things  in  his  attack.  All  clear- 
sighted men  perceived  that  the  one  obstacle  to  reform  was  the 
theory  of  the  papal  monarchy,  which  had  been  laboriously 
constructed  by  Italian  canonists  after  the  failure  of  Conciliar 
reform, — a  theory  which  defied  the  old  mediaeval  ecclesias- 
tical tradition,  and  contradicted  the  solemn  decisions  of  the 
great  German  Councils  of  Constance  and  Basel.  Luther's 
attacks  on  the  Papacy  were  not  stronger  than  those  of 
Gerson  and  d'Ailly,  and  his  language  was  not  more  un- 
measured than  that  of  their  common  master,  William  of 
Occam.  There  was  nothing  in  these  early  days  to  prevent 
men  who  were  genuinely  attached  to  the  mediaeval  Church, 
its  older  theology  and  its  ancient  rites,  from  rallying  round 
Luther.  When  the  marches  began  to  be  redd,  and  the 
beginnings  of  a  Protestant  Church  confronted  the  mediaeval, 
the  situation  was  changed.  Many  who  had  entliusiastically 
supported  Luther  left  him. 


LUTHER   AND   THE   HUMANISTS  255 

Conrad  Mutianus,  canon  of  Gotha,  and  the  veteran 
leader  of  the  Erfurt  circle  of  Humanists,  wrote  admiringly 
of  the  originality  of  Luther's  sermons  as  early  as  1515. 
He  applauded  the  stand  he  took  at  Leipzig,  and  spoke 
of  him  as  Martinum,  Deo  devotissimum  doctorcm.  His 
followers  were  no  longer  contented  with  a  study  of  the 
classical  authors.  Eobanus  Hessus,  crowned  "  poet-king  " 
of  Germany,  abandoned  his  Horace  for  the  Enchiridion  of 
Erasmus  and  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Justus  Jonas  (Jodocus 
Koch  of  Nordlingen)  forsook  classical  Greek  to  busy 
himself  with  the  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians.  The  wicked 
satirist,  Curicius  Cordus,  betook  himself  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment. They  did  this  out  of  admiration  for  Erasmus,  "their 
father  in  Christ."  But  when  Luther  appeared,  when  they 
read  his  pamphlets  circulating  through  Germany,  when 
they  followed,  step  by  step,  his  career,  they  came  under 
the  influence  of  a  new  spell.  The  Erasmici,  to  use  the 
phrases  of  the  times,  diminished,  and  the  Martiniani  in- 
creased in  numbers.  One  of  the  old  Erfurt  circle,  Johannes 
Crotus  Eubeanus,  was  in  Eome.  His  letters,  passed  round 
among  his  friends,  made  no  small  impression  upon  them. 
He  told  them  that  he  was  living  in  the  centre  of  the 
plague-spot  of  Europe.  He  reviled  the  Curia  as  devoid  of 
all  moral  conscience.  "  The  Pope  and  his  carrion-crows  " 
were  sitting  content,  gorged  on  the  miseries  of  the  Church. 
When  Crotus  received  from  Germany  copies  of  Luther's 
writings,  he  distributed  them  secretly  to  his  Italian  friends, 
and  collected  their  opinions  to  transmit  to  Germany.  They 
were  all  sympathetically  impressed  with  what  Luther  said, 
but  they  pitied  him  as  a  man  travelling  along  a  very 
dangerous  road ;  no  real  reform  was  possible  without  the 
destruction  of  the  whole  curial  system,  and  that  was  too 
powerful  for  any  man  to  combat.  Yet  Luther  was  a  hero : 
he  was  the  Pater  Patrice  of  Germany;  his  countrymen 
ought  to  erect  a  golden  statue  in  his  honour ;  they  wished 
him  God-speed.  When  Crotus  returned  to  Germany  and 
got  more  in  touch  with  Luther's  work,  he  felt  more  drawn 
to  the  Reformer,  and  wrote  enthusiastically  to  his  friends 


256       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

that  Luther  was  the  personal  revelation  of  Christ  in  modern 
times.  So  we  find  these  Humanists  declaring  that  Luther 
was  the  St.  Paul  of  the  age,  the  modern  Hercules,  the 
Achilles  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

No    Humanist   circle   gave  Luther   more   enthusiastic 
support  than  that  of  Niirnberg,      The  soil  had  been  pre- 
pared by  a  few  ardent  admirers  of  Staupitz,  at  the  head 
of  whom  was  Wenceslas  Link,  prior  of  the  Augustinian- 
Eremites  in  Niirnberg,  and  a  celebrated  preacher.     They 
had  learned  from  Staupitz  that  blending  of  the  theology  of 
Augustine  with  the  later   German  mysticism  which  was 
characteristic  of  the  man,  and  it  prepared  them  to  appre- 
ciate the  deeper  experimental  teaching  of  Luther.     Among 
these  Niirnberg  Humanists  was  Christopher  Scheurl,  a  jurist, 
personally  acquainted  with  Luther  and   with  Eck.      The 
shortlived   friendship    between  the    two    antagonists    had 
been  brought  about  by  Scheurl,  whose  correspondence  with 
Luther    began    in    1516.      Scheurl    was    convinced    that 
Luther's  cause  was   the  "  cause  of  God."     He  told   Eck 
this.     He  wrote  to  him  (February  18th,  1519)  that  all 
the  most  spiritually  minded  clergymen  that  he  knew  were 
devoted  to  Luther ;  that  "  they  flew  to  him  in  dense  troops, 
like  starlings  " ;  that  their  deepest  sympathies  were  with 
him ;  and  that  they  confessed   that   their   holiest  desires 
were  prompted  by  his  writings.     Albert  Dlirer  expressed 
his  admiration  by  painting  Luther  as  St.  John,  the  beloved 
disciple  of   the   Lord.     Caspar   Niitzel,  one   of   the  most 
dignified  officials  of   the  town,  thought   it   an  honour  to 
translate  Luther's  Ninety -five  Theses  into  German.     Lazarus 
Sprengel  delighted  to  tell  his  -friends  how  Luther's  tracts 
and  sermons  were  bringing  back  to  a  living  Christianity 
numbers  of  his  acquaintances  who  had  been  perplexed  and 
driven  from  the  faith  by  the  trivialities  common  in  ordinary 
sermons.      Similar  enthusiasm  showed  itself  in  Augsburg 
and  other  towns.     After  the  Leipzig  Disputation,  the  great 
printer  of  Basel,  Frobenius,  became  an  ardent  admirer  of 
Luther ;    reprinted   most   of   his  writings,  and   despatched 
them    to    Switzerland,    France,    the    Netherlands,    Italy, 


LUTHER   THE    REPRESENTATIVE    OF   GERMANY      257 

England,  and  Spain.  He  delighted  to  tell  of  the  favour- 
able reception  they  met  with  in  these  foreign  countries, — 
how  they  had  been  welcomed  by  Lefevre  in  France,  and 
how  the  Swiss  Cardinal  von  Sitten  had  said  that  Luther 
deserved  all  honour,  for  he  spoke  the  truth,  which  no 
special  pleading  of  an  Eck  could  overthrow.  The  distin- 
guished jurist  Ulrich  Zasius  of  Freiburg  said  that  Luther 
was  an  "  angel  incarnate,"  and  while  he  deprecated  his  strong 
language  against  the  Pope,  he  called  him  the  "  Phoenix 
among  Christian  theologians,"  the  "  flower  of  the  Christian 
world,"  and  the  "  instrument  of  God."  Zasius  was  a  man 
whose  whole  religious  sympathies  belonged  to  the  mediaeval 
conception  of  the  Church,  yet  he  spoke  of  Luther  in  this  way. 
It  is  perhaps  difficult  for  us  now  to  comprehend  the 
state  of  mind  which  longed  for  the  new  and  yet  clung  to 
the  old,  which  made  the  two  Ntirnberg  families,  the  Ebners 
and  the  Niitzlers,  season  the  ceremonies  at  their  family 
gathering  to  celebrate  their  daughters  taking  the  veil  with 
speeches  in  praise  of  Luther  and  of  his  writings.  Yet  this 
was  the  dominant  note  in  the  vast  majority  of  the  sup- 
porters of  Luther  in  these  earlier  years. 
)  Men  who  had  no  great  admiration  for  Luther  personally 
had  no  wish  to  see  him  crushed  by  the  Koman  Curia  by 
mere  weight  of  authority.  Even  Duke  George  of  Saxony, 
who  had  called  Luther  a  pestilent  fellow  at  the  Leipzig 
Disputation,  had  been  stirred  into  momentary  admiration 
by  the  Address  to  the  Christian  Nobility  of  the  German 
Nation,  and  had  no  great  desire  to  publish  the  Bull  within 
his  dominions ;  and  his  private  secretary  and  chaplain, 
Jerome  Emser,  although  a  personal  enemy  who  never  lost 
an  opportunity  of  controverting  Luther,  nevertheless  hoped 
that  he  might  be  the  instrument  of  effecting  a  reforma- 
tion in  the  Church.  Jacob  Wimpheling  of  Strassburg,  a 
thoroughgoing  medisevalist  who  had  manifested  no  sym- 
pathy for  Reuchlin,  and  his  friend  Christopher  of  Utenheim, 
Bishop  of  Basel,  hoped  that  the  movement  begun  by  Luther 
might  lead  to  that  reformation  of  the  Church  on  mediaeval 
lines  which  they  both  earnestly  desired. 
17* 


258       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

Perhaps  no  one  represented  better  the  attitude  of  the 
large  majority  of  Luther's  supporters,  in  the  years  between 
1517  and  1521,  than  did  the  Prince,  who  is  rightly 
called  Luther's  protector,  Frederick  the  Elector  of  Saxony. 
It  is  a  great  though  common  mistake  to  suppose  that 
Frederick  shared  those  opinions  of  Luther  which  afterwards 
grew  to  be  the  Lutheran  theology.  His  brother  John,  and 
in  a  still  higher  degree  his  nephew  John  Frederick,  were 
devoted  Lutherans  in  the  theological  sense ;  but  there  is 
no  evidence  to  show  that  Frederick  ever  was. 

Frederick  never  had  any  intimate  personal  relations 
with  Luther.  At  Spalatin's  request,  he  had  paid  the 
expenses  of  Luther's  promotion  to  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures ;  he  had,  of  course,  acquiesced  in  his 
appointment  to  succeed  Spalatin  as  Professor  of  Theology ; 
and  he  must  have  appreciated  keenly  the  way  in  which 
Luther's  work  had  gradually  raised  the  small  and  declining 
University  to  the  position  it  held  in  1 5 1 7.  A  few  letters 
were  exchanged  between  Luther  and  Frederick,  but  there 
is  no  evidence  that  they  ever  met  in  conversation ;  nor  is 
there  any  that  Frederick  had  ever  heard  Luther  preach. 
When  he  lay  dying  he  asked  Luther  to  come  and  see  him  ; 
but  the  Keformer  was  far  distant,  trying  to  dissuade  the 
peasants  from  rising  in  rebellion,  and  when  he  reached  the 
palace  his  old  protector  had  breathed  his  last. 

The  Elector  was  a  pious  man  according  to  mediaeval 
standards.  He  had  received  his  earliest  lasting  religious 
impressions  from  intercourse  with  Augustinian  Eremite 
monks  when  he  was  a  boy  at  school  at  Grimma,  and  he 
maintained  the  closest  relations  with  the  Order  all  his 
life.  He  valued  highly  all  the  external  aids  to  a  religious 
life  which  the  mediaeval  Church  had  provided.  He  believed 
in  the  virtue  of  pilgrimages  and  relics.  He  had  made  a 
pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land,  and  had  brought  back  a 
great  many  rehcs,  which  he  had  placed  in  the  Church  of 
All  Saints  in  Wittenberg,  and  lie  had  agents  at  Venice 
and  other  Mediterranean  ports  commissioned  to  secure 
other  relics  for  his  collection.     He  continued  to  purchase 


THE   ELECTOR   OF   SAXONY  259 

them  as  late  as  the  year  1523.  He  believed  in  Indul- 
gences of  the  older  type, — Indulgences  which  remitted  in 
whole  or  in  part  ecclesiastically  imposed  satisfactions, — and 
he  had  procured  two  for  use  in  Saxony.  One  served  as 
an  endowment  for  the  upkeep  of  his  bridge  at  Torgau,  and 
he  had  once  commissioned  Tetzel  to  preach  its  virtues ; 
the  other  was  to  benefit  pilgrims  who  visited  and  venerated 
his  collection  of  relics  on  All  Saints'  Day.  But  it  is  clear 
that  he  disliked  Indulgences  of  the  kind  Luther  had 
challenged,  and  had  small  belief  in  the  good  faith  of  the 
Koman  Curia.  He  had  prevented  money  collected  for  one 
plenary  Indulgence  leaving  the  country,  and  he  had  for- 
bidden Tetzel  to  preach  the  last  Indulgence  within  his 
territories.  His  sympathies  were  all  with  Luther  on  this 
question.  He  was  an  esteemed  patron  of  the  pious  society 
called  St.  Ursula's  Schifflein.  He  went  to  Mass  regularly, 
and  his  attendances  became  frequent  when  he  was  in  a 
state  of  hesitation  or  perplexity.  When  he  was  at  Koln 
(November  1520),  besieged  by  the  papal  nuncios  to  induce 
him  to  permit  the  publication  of  the  Bull  against  Luther 
within  his  lands,  Spalatin  noted  that  he  went  to  Mass 
three  times  in  one  day.  His  reverence  for  the  Holy 
Scriptures  must  have  created  a  bond  of  sympathy  between 
Luther  and  himself.  He  talked  with  his  private  secretary 
about  the  incomparable  majesty  and  power  of  the  word 
of  God,  and  contrasted  its  subUmities  with  the  sophistries 
and  trivialities  of  the  theology  of  the  day.  He  maintained 
firmly  the  traditional  policy  of  his  House  to  make  the 
decisions  of  the  Councils  of  Constance  and  of  Basel  effective 
within  Electoral  Saxony,  in  spite  of  protests  from  the  Curia 
and  the  higher  ecclesiastics,  and  was  accustomed  to  consider 
himself  responsible  for  the  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  for 
the  civil  good  government  of  his  lands.  Aleander  had 
considered  it  a  master-stroke  of  policy  to  procure  the 
burning  of  Luther's  books  at  Koln  while  the  Elector  was 
in  the  city.  Frederick  only  regarded  the  deed  as  a  petty 
insult  to  himself.  He  was  a  staunch  upholder  of  the 
rights  and  liberties  of  the  German  nation,  and  remembered 


260       THE  INDULGENCE  CONTROVERSY 

that  by  an  old  concordat,  which  every  Emperor  had  sworn 
to  maintain,  every  German  had  the  right  to  appeal  to  a 
General  Council,  and  could  not  be  condemned  without  a 
fair  trial ;  and  this  Bull  had  made  Luther's  appeal  to  a 
Council  one  of  the  reasons  for  his  condemnation.  So,  in 
spite  of  the  "  golden  rose "  and  other  blandishments,  in 
spite  of  threats  that  he  might  be  included  in  the  ex- 
communication of  his  subject  and  that  the  privileges  of  his 
University  might  be  taken  away,  he  stood  firm,  and  would 
not  withdraw  his  protection  from  Luther.  He  was  a  pious 
German  prince  of  the  old-fashioned  type,  with  no  great 
love  for  Italians,  and  was  not  going  to  be  browbeaten  by 
papal  nuncios.  His  attitude  towards  Luther  represents 
very  fairly  that  of  the  great  mass  of  the  German  people 
on  the  eve  of  the  Diet  of  Worms. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   DIET   OF   WORMS.* 

§  1.   The  Boman  Nuncio  Aleander. 

Rome  bad  done  its  utmost  to  get  rid  of  Luther  by  ecclesi- 
astical measures,  and  had  failed.  If  he  was  to  be  over- 
thrown, if  the  new  religious  movement  and  the  national 
uprising  which  enclosed  it  were  to  be  stifled,  this  could 
only  be  done  by  the  aid  of  the  supreme  secular  authority. 
The  Curia  turned  to  the  Emperor. 

Maximilian  had  died  suddenly  on  the  12  th  of  January 
1519.     After  some  months   of   intriguing,  the  papal   di- 

*  Sources  :  Deutsche  Reiclistagsakten  unter  Kaiser  Karl  F.,  3  vols,  have 
been  published  (Gotha,  1893-1901) ;  Balan,  Monumenta  Reformationis 
Lutherance  ex  tdbulis  S.  Sedis  secretis  1521-1525  (Ratisbon,  1883-1884) ; 
Lsemmer,  Monumenta  Vaticana  historiam  ecclesiasticam  sceculi  16  illustrantia 
(Freiburg,  1861)  ;  Meletematum  Romanorum  Mantissa  (Regensburg,  1875)  ; 
Brieger,  Aleander  und  Luther  1521 :  Die  vervollstiindigten  Aleander-De- 
peschen  nebst  Unter suchungen  iiber  den  Wormser  Reichstag  (Gotha,  1894); 
Calendar  of  Spanish  State  Papers  (London,  1886) ;  Calendar  of  Venetian 
State  Papers,  vols,  iii.-vi.  (London,  1864-1884) ;  Letters  and  Papers,  Foreign 
and  Domestic,  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIIT.,  vols,  iii.-xix.  (London,  1860- 
1903) ;  V.  E.  Loescher,  Vollstdndige  Reformations- Acta  und  Documenta, 
3  vols,  (Leipzig,  1713-1722)  ;  Spalatin,  Annales  Reformationis  (Leipzig, 
1768) ;  Chronikon,  2nd  vol.  of  Mencke's  Scriptores  rerum  Germanicarum 
prcecipue  Saxonicarum,  3  vols.  (Leipzig,  1728-1730);  Historischer  Nachlass 
und  Briefe  (Jena,  1851) ;  also  the  sources  mentioned  under  the  first  chapter 
of  this  part. 

Later  Books  :  Hausrath,  Aleander  und  Luther  auf  dem  Reiehstage  zu 
Woi^is  (Berlin,  1897)  ;  Kolde,  Luther  und  der  Reichstag  zu  Worms  1521 
(Halle,  1883) ;  Friedrich,  Der  Reichstag  zu  Worms  1521  (Munich,  1871) ; 
Ranke,  Deutsche  Geschichte  im  Zeitalter  der  Reformation  (Leipzig,  1881  ; 
Eng.  trans.,  London,  1905) ;  Armstrong,  The  Emperor  Charles  V.  (London, 
1902) ;  v.  Bezold,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Reformation  (Berlin,  1890) ; 
Creighton,  A  History  of  the  Papacy,  vol.  vi.  (London,  1897) ;  Gebhardt,  Die 
Oravamina  der  deutschen  Nation  (Breslau,  1895). 


262  THE   DIET   OF   WORMS 

plomacy  being  very  tortuous,  his  grandson  Charles,  the 
young  King  of  Spain,  was  unanimously  chosen  to  be  his 
successor  (June  28th,  1519).  Troubles  in  Spain  prevented 
him  leaving  that  country  at  once  to  take  possession  of 
his  new  dignities.  He  was  crowned  at  Aachen  on  the  23  rd 
of  October  1520,  and  opened  his  first  German  Diet  on 
^January  22nd,  1521,  at  Worms. 

The  Pope  had  selected  two  envoys  to  wait  on  the 
young  Emperor,  the  Protonotary  Marino  Caraccioli  (1469- 
1530),  who  was  charged  with  the  ordinary  diplomatic 
business,  and  Jerome  Aleander,  the  Director  of  the  Vatican 
Library,  who  was  appointed  to  secure  the  outlawry  of 
Luther. 

The  Koman  Curia  had  in  Aleander  one  of  the  most 
clear-sighted,  courageous,  and  indefatigable  of  diplomatists. 
He  was  an  Italian,  born  of  a  burglier  family  in  the  little 
Venetian  town  of  Motta  (1480-1542),  educated  at  Padua 
and  Venice  ;  he  had  begun  life  as  a  Humanist,  had  lectured 
on  Greek  with  distinction  in  Paris,  and  had  been  personally 
acquainted  with  many  of  the  German  Humanists,  who  could 
not  forgive  the  "  traitor  '*  who  had  deserted  their  ranks  to 
serve  an  obscurantist  party.  His  graphic  letters,  full  of 
minute  details,  throb  with  the  hopes  and  fears  of  the  papal 
diplomacy.  The  reader  has  his  fingers  on  the  pulse  of 
those  momentous  months.  The  Legate  was  in  a  land  where 
"  every  stone  and  every  tree  cried  out,  '  Luther.' "  Land- 
lords refused  him  lodging.  He  had  to  shiver  during  these 
winter  months  in  an  attic  without  a  stove.  The  stench 
and  dirt  of  the  house  were  worse  than  the  cold.  When  he 
appeared  on  the  streets  he  saw  scowling  faces,  hands 
suddenly  carried  to  the  hilfcs  of  swords,  heard  curses 
shrieked  after  him.  He  was  struck  on  the  breast  by  a 
Lutheran  doorkeeper  when  he  tried  to  get  audience  of  the 
Elector  of  Saxony,  and  no  one  in  the  crowd  interfered  to 
protect  hiuL  He  saw  caricatures  of  himself  hanging  head 
downwards  from  a  gibbet.  He  received  the  old  deadly 
German  feud -letters  from  Ulrich  von  Hutten,  safe  in  the 
neighbouring   castle    of    Ebernberg,    about    a    day's    ride 


THE  NUNCIO   ALEANDER  263 

distant*  The  imperial  Councillors  to  whom  he  complained 
had  neither  the  men  nor  the  means  to  protect  him.  When 
he  tried  to  publish  answers  to  the  attacks  on  the  Papacy 
which  the  Lutheran  presses  poured  forth,  he  could  scarcely 
find  a  printer ;  and  when  he  did,  syndicates  bought  up  his 
pamphlets  and  destroyed  them.  As  the  weeks  passed  he 
came  to  understand  that  there  was  only  one  man  on  whom 
he  could  rely — the  young  Emperor,  believed  by  all  but 
himself  to  be  a  puppet  in  the  hands  of  his  Councillors, 
whom  Pope  Leo  had  called  a  "good  child,"  but  whom 
Aleander  from  his  first  interview  at  Antwerp  had  felt  to 
be  endowed  wibh  "  a  prudence  far  beyond  his  years,"  and  to 
"  have  much  more  at  the  back  of  his  head  than  he  carried 
on  his  face."  He  also  came  to  believe  that  the  one  man  to 
be  feared  was  the  old  Elector  of  Saxony,  "  that  basilisk," 
that  "  German  fox,"  that  "  marmot  with  the  eyes  of  a  dog, 
who  glanced  obliquely  at  his  questioners." 

Aleander  was  a  pure  worldling,  a  man  of  indifferent 
morals,  showing  traces  of  cold-blooded  cruelty  (as  when  he 
slew  five  peasants  for  the  loss  of  one  of  his  dogs,  or  tried 
to  get  Erasmus  poisoned).  He  believed  that  every  man 
had  his  price,  and  that  low  and  selfish  motives  were  alone 
to  be  reckoned  with.  But  he  did  the  work  of  the  Curia  at 
Worms  with  a  thoroughness  which  merited  the  rewards  he 
obtained  afterwards.*  He  had  spies  everywhere — in  the 
households  of  the  Emperor  and  of  the  leading  princes,  and 
among  the  population  of  Worms.  He  had  no  hesitation  in 
/ying  when  he  thought  it  useful  for  the  "  faith,"  as  he 
frankly  relates.'  The  Curia  had  laid  a  difficult  task  upon 
him.  He  was  to  see  that  Luther  was  put  under  the 
ban  of  the  Empire  at  once  and  unheard.  The  Bull  had 
condemned  him ;  the  secular  power  had  nothing  to  do  but 
execute  the  sentence.  Aleander  had  little  difficulty  in 
persuading  the  Emperor  to  this  course  within  his  hereditary 

*  Kalkoff,  Die  DepescTien,  etc.  pp.  46,  50,  58,  69,  etc. 

■  He  became  Archbishop  of  Brindisi  and  Oria,  and  then  a  Cardinal. 

•  Brieger,  Aleander  und  Luther  1521 :  Die  vervoUstdndigten  Aleander^ 
Depeschenf  p.  53  (Gotha,  1884) ;  non  sujyerstUiou  verax,  Erasmus  said. 


264  THE    DIET   OF   WORMS 

dominions.  An  edict  was  issued  ordering  Luther's  books 
to  be  burnt,  and  the  Legate  had  the  satisfaction  of  presiding 
at  several  literary  auto-da-f^s  in  Antwerp  and  elsewhere. 
He  was  also  successful  with  some  of  the  ecclesiastical  princes 
of  Germany.^  But  it  was  impossible  to  get  this  done  at 
Worms.  Failing  this,  it  was  Aleander's  business  to  see 
that  Luther's  case  was  kept  separate  from  the  question 
of  German  national  grievances  against  the  Papacy,  and 
that,  if  it  proved  to  be  impossible  to  prevent  Luther  appear- 
ing before  the  Diet,  ibe  was  to  be  summoned  there  simply 
for  the  purpose  of  making  public  recantation.  With  the 
assistance  of  the  Emperor  he  was  largely  successful* 


§  2.   The  Emperor  Charles  v. 

Aleander  was  not  the  real  antagonist  of  Luther  at 
Worms ;  he  was  not  worthy  of  the  name.  The  German 
Diet  was  the  scene  of  a  fight  of  faiths ;  and  the  man  of 
faith  on  the  mediaeval  side  was  the  young  Emperor.  He 
represented  the  believing  past  as  Luther  represented  the 
believing  future.^      "What  my  forefathers  established  at 

*  Kalkoff,  Die  DepescJien  des  Nuntius  Aleander,  etc.  pp.  19,  20,  23,  24, 
265,  266. 

^  Brieger,  Aleander  und  Luther  1521 :  Die  vervollstdndigten  Aleander- 
Depeschen  (Gotha,  1884),  Quellen  und  Forschungen  zur  Geschichte  der  Befor- 
mation,  i.  ;  Friedensburg,  Eine  ungedriicJcte  Depesche  Aleanders  von  seiner 
ersten  Nuntiatur  hei  Karl  F.,  in  Quellen  und  Forschungen  aus  italienischen 
Archiven,  i.  (1897);  Kalkoff,  Die  Depeschen  des  Nuntius  Aleander  vom 
Wormser  Reichstage  1521  (Halle,  1897,  2nd  ed.);  Kolde,  Luther  und  der 
Reichstag  zu  Worms  1521  (Halle,  1883)  ;  Hausrath,  Aleander  und  Luther 
auf  dem  Reichstage  zu  Worms  (Berlin,  1897) ;  Gebhardt,  Die  Gravamina 
der  deutschen  Nation  (Breslau,  1895,  2nd  ed.). 

•  *'  Reserved  as  Charles  was,  the  shock  struck  out  the  most  outspoken 
confes&ion  of  his  faith  that  he  ever  uttered.  Nowhere  else  is  it  possible  to 
approach  so  closely  to  the  workings  of  his  spiritual  nature,  save  in  the  con- 
fidential letters  to  his  brother  in  the  last  troubled  hours  of  rule,  when  he 
repeated  that  it  was  not  in  his  conscience  to  rend  the  seamless  mantle  of 
the  Church." — Armstrong,  The  Emperor  Charles  F.,  i.  71  (London,  1902). 
But  we  have  another  glimpse  in  the  conversation  with  his  sister  Maria,  in 
which  he  confesses  that  he  had  come  to  think  better  of  the  Lutherans,  for 
he  had  learned  to  know  that  they  taught  noiliiiig  outside  the  Apostles 
Creed.     Cf.  Kawerau,  Johann  Agricola  von  Eisleben,  p.  ]00  (Berlin,  1881). 


THE  EMPEROR  CHARLES  V.         265 

Constance  and  other  Councils,"  lie  said,  "  it  is  my  privilege 
to  uphold.  A  single  monk,  led  astray  by  private  judgment, 
has  set  bimseK  against  the  faith  held  by  all  Christians  for 
a  thousand  years  and  more,  and  impudently  concludes  that 
all  Christians  up  till  now  have  erred.  I  have  therefore 
resolved  to  stake  upon  this  cause  all  my  dominions,  my 
friends,  my  body  and  my  blood,  my  life  and  soul."  *  The 
crisis  had  not  come  suddenly  on  him.  As  early  as  May 
12tli,  1520,  Juan  Manuel,  his  ambassador  at  Kome,  had 
written  to  him  asking  him  to  pay  some  attention  to  "  a 
certain  Martin  Luther,  who  belongs  to  the  following  of  the 
Elector  of  Saxony,"  and  whose  preaching  was  causing  some 
discontent  at  the  Koman  Curia.  Manuel  thought  that 
Luther  might  prove  useful  in  a  diplomatic  dispute  with 
the  Curia.2  Charles  had  had  time  to  think  over  the 
matter  in  his  serious,  reserved  way ;  and  this  was  the 
decision  he  had  come  to.  The  declaration  was  all  the  more 
memorable  when  it  is  remembered  that  Charles  owed  his 
election  to  that  rising  feeling  of  nationality  which  supported 
Luther,^  and  that  he  had  to  make  sure  of  German  assistance 
in  his  coming  struggle  with  Francis  I.  A  certain  grim 
reality  lurked  in  the  words,  that  he  was  ready  to  stake  his 
dominions  on  the  cause  he  adopted.  There  is  much  to  be 
said  for  the  opinion  that  "  the  Lutheran  question  made 
a  man  of  the  boy-ruler."  * 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  well  to  remember  that  the 
young  Emperor  did  not  take  the  side  of  the  Pope  nor  com- 
mit himself  to  the  Curial  ideas  of  the  absolute  character 
of  papal  supremacy.     He  laid  stress  on  the  unity  of  the 
^  CathoHc  (mediaeval)  Church,  on  the  continuity  of  its  rites, 
I  and  on  the  need  of  maintaining  its  authority ;  but  the  seat 
tof   that  authority  was   for  him  a  General  Council.      The 
declaration  in  no  way  conflicts  with  the  changes  in  imperial 

*  Deutsche  Reichstag sakten,  etc.  ii.  595. 

«  Calerhdar  of  State  Papers,  Spanish,  1509-1525,  p.  305  (London,  1866). 

*  For  an  account  of  the  indirect  causes  which  led  to  the  election  of 
Charles,  cf.  v.  Bezold,  Oesehichte  der  devischen  Reformation,  pp.  193  ff. 
(Berlin,  1890). 

*  Armstrong,  The  Emjjeror  Churles  v.,  p.  73  (London,  1902). 


266  THE   DIET  OF   WORMd 

policy  which  may  be  traced  during  the  opening  weeks  o! 
the  Diet,  nor  with  that  future  action  which  led  to  the  Sack 
of  Eome  and  to  the  Augsburg  Interim  (1548).  It  is 
possible  that  the  young  ruler  had  read  and  admired  Luther's 
earlier  writings,  and  that  he  had  counted  on  him  as  an  aid 
in  bringing  the  Church  to  a  better  condition.  It  is  more 
than  probable  that  he  already  believed  that  it  was  his 
duty  to  free  the  Church  from  the  abuses  which  abounded  ;^ 
but  Luther's  fierce  attack  on  the  Pope  disgusted  him,  and 
a  reformation  which  came  from  the  people  threatened 
secular  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  authority.  He  had  made 
up  his  mind  that  Luther  must  be  condemned,  and  told  the 
German  princes  that  he  would  not  change  one  iota  of  his 
determination.  But  this  did  not  prevent  him  making  use 
of  Luther  to  further  his  diplomatic  dealings  with  the  Pope 
and  wring  concessions  from  the  Curia.  For  one  thing,  the 
Pope  had  been  interfering  with  the  Inquisition  in  Spain, 

*  Charles  v.  had  for  his  confessor  Jean  Glapion,  who  figured  largely  in 
the  preliminary  scenes  before  Luther  arrived  at  "Worms.  He  had  a  remark- 
able conversation  with  Dr.  Briick,  the  Elector  of  Saxony's  Chancellor,  in 
which  he  professed  to  speak  for  the  Emperor  as  well  as  for  himself.  Luther's 
earlier  writings  had  given  him  great  pleasure ;  he  believed  him  to  be  a 
*'  plant  of  renown,"  able  to  produce  splendid  fruit  for  the  Church.  But  the 
book  on  the  Babylonian  Captivity  had  shocked  him  ;  he  did  not  believe  it 
to  be  Luther's ;  it  was  not  in  his  usual  style ;  if  Luther  had  written  it,  it 
must  have  been  because  he  was  momentarily  indignant  at  the  papal  Bull, 
and  as  it  was  anonymous,  it  could  easily  be  repudiated  ;  or  if  not  repudiated, 
it  might  be  explained,  and  its  sentences  shown  to  be  capable  of  a  Catholic 
interpretation.  If  this  were  done,  and  if  Luther  withdrew  his  violent  writ- 
ings against  the  Pope,  there  was  no  reason  why  an  amicable  arrangement 
should  not  be  come  to.  The  Papal  Bull  could  easily  be  got  over,  it  could  be 
withdrawn  on  the  ground  that  Luther  had  never  had  a  fair  trial.  It  was  a 
mistake  to  suppose  that  the  Emperor  was  not  keenly  alive  to  the  need  for  a 
reformation  of  the  Church  ;  there  were  limits  to  his  devotion  to  the  Pope  ; 
the  Emperor  believed  that  he  would  deserve  the  wrath  of  God  if  he  did  not 
try  to  amend  the  deplorable  condition  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  Such  was 
Glapion's  statement.  It  is  a  question  how  far  he  was  sincere,  and  how  far 
he  could  speak  for  the  Emperor.  He  was  a  friend  and  admirer  of  Erasmus ; 
but  the  Dutchman  had  said  that  no  man  could  conceal  his  own  views  so 
skilfully.  The  Elector  heard  that  after  this  conversation  Glapion  had  got 
from  Aleander  400  copies  of  the  Bull  against  Luther,  and  had  distributed 
them  among  Franciscan  monks.  This  made  him  doubt  his  sincerity,  and 
he  refused  to  grant  him  an  audience.    Cf.  Eeichstagsakten,  u.  477  ft. 


IN   THE   CITY    Of  WORMS  26? 

trying  to  mitigate  its  severity ;  and  Charles,  like  his 
maternal  grandfather,  Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  believed  that 
the  Holy  Office  was  a  help  in  curbing  the  freedom-loving 
people  of  Spain,  and  had  no  wish  to  see  his  instrument  of 
punishment  made  less  effectual.  For  another,  it  was  evident 
that  Francis  I.  was  about  to  invade  Italy,  and  Charles 
wished  the  Pope  to  take  his  side.  If  the  Pope  gave  way 
to  him  on  both  of  these  points,  he  was  ready  to  carry  out 
his  wishes  about  Luther  as  far  as  that  was  possible.^ 


§  3.  In  the  City  of  Worms. 

The  city  of  Worms  was  crowded  with  men  of  diverse 
opinions  and  of  many  different  nationalities.  The  first 
Diet  of  the  youthful  Emperor  (Charles  was  barely  one  and 
twenty),  from  whom  men  of  all  parties  expected  so  much, 
had  attracted  much  larger  numbers  than  usually  attended 
these  assemblies.  Weighty  matters  affecting  all  Germany 
were  down  on  the  agenda.     There  was  the  old  constitutional 

'  A  study  of  dates  throws  light  on  these  bargainings.  In  Oct.  1520, 
Charles  issued  an  edict  ordering  the  burning  of  Luther's  books  within  his 
hereditary  dominions.  In  the  following  weeks  Aleander  was  pressing  Charles 
to  make  the  edict  universal ;  this  was  declared  to  be  impossible,  and  (Nov. 
28th)  Charles  wrote  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony  ordering  him  to  produce 
Luther  at  Worms,  and  to  hinder  him  from  writing  anything  more  against 
the  Pope ;  as  it  were  in  answer  (Dec.  12th),  the  Pope  intimated  to  Charles 
that  he  had  withdrawn  his  briefs  about  the  Inquisition  in  Spain.  The 
Emperor  reached  Worms  about  the  middle  of  December.  On  Jan.  3rd 
(1521)  the  Pope  simplified  matters  for  the  Emperor  by  issuing  a  new  Bull, 
Deed  Eomanum,  containing  the  names  of  Luther  and  Hutten  ;  the  Diet 
opened  Jan.  28th  ;  Aleander  made  his  three  hours'  speech  against  Luther  on 
Feb.  13 ;  Feb.  19th,  the  Estates  resolved  tliat  Luther  should  appear  before 
them,  and  not  for  the  simple  purpose  of  recantation — he  was  to  be  heard,  and 
to  receive  a  safe  conduct ;  March  6th,  the  imperial  invitation  and  safe  con- 
duct, beginning  with  the  words,  noMKs,  devote,  nobis  dilecte  ;  Aleander  pro- 
tested vehemently  against  this  address ;  the  Emperor  drafted  a  universal 
mandate  ordering  the  burning  of  Luther's  books  ;  this  probably  was  not 
published ;  it  was  withdrawn  in  favour  of  a  mandate  ordering  all  Luther's 
books  to  be  delivered  up  to  the  magistrates  ;  this  was  published  in  Worms 
on  March  27th,  and  caused  rioting ;  April  17th  and  18th,  Luther  appeared 
before  the  Diet ;  May  8th,  Charles  received  the  Pope's  pledge  to  take  his  side 
against  Francis ;  Diet  agreed  to  the  ban  against  Luther  on  May  26th ; 
Charles  dated  the  ban  May  8th. 


268  THE   DIET   OF   WORMS 

qucBtion  of  monarchy  or  oligarchy  bequeathed  from  the 
Diets  of  Maximilian ;  curiosity  to  see  whether  the  new 
ruler  would  place  before  the  Estates  a  truly  imperial 
policy,  or  whetlier,  like  his  predecessors,  he  would  sub- 
ordinate national  to  dynastic  considerations ;  the  deputies 
from  the  cities  were  eager  to  get  some  sure  provisions  made 
for  ending  the  private  wars  which  disturbed  trade ;  all 
classes  were  anxious  to  provide  for  an  effective  central 
government  when  the  Emperor  was  absent  from  Germany ; 
local  statesmen  felt  the  need  of  putting  an  end  to  the 
constant  disputes  between  the  ecclesiastical  and  secular 
powers  within  Germany;  but  the  hardest  problem  of  all, 
and  the  one  which  every  man  was  thinking,  talking,  dis- 
puting about,  was :  "  To  take  notice  of  the  books  and 
descriptions  made  by  Friar  Martin  Luther  against  the 
Court  of  Eome."  ^  Other  exciting  questions  were  stirring 
the  crowds  met  at  Worms  besides  those  mentioned  on  the 
agenda  of  the  Diet.  Men  were  talking  about  the  need 
of  making  an  end  of  the  papal  exactions  which  were  drain- 
ing Germany  of  money,  and  the  air  was  full  of  rumours  of 
what  Sickingen  and  the  knights  might  attempt,  and  whether 
there  was  going  to  be  another  peasant  revolt.  These 
questions  were  instinctively  felt  to  hang  together,  and  each 
had  an  importance  because  of  the  way  in  which  it  was 
connected  with  the  religious  and  social  problems  of  the 
day.  For  the  people  of  Germany  and  for  the  foreign 
representatives  who  were  gathered  together  at  Worms,  it  is 
unquestionable  that  the  Lutheran  movement,  and  how  it 
was  to  be  dealt  with,  was  the  supreme  problem  of  the 
moment.  All  these  various  things  combined  to  bring 
together  at  Worms  a  larger  concourse  of  people  than  had 
been  collected  in  any  German  town  since  the  meeting  of 
the  General  Council  at  Constance  in  1414. 

Worms  was  one  of  the  oldest  towns  in  Germany.  Its 
people  were  turbulent,  asserting  their  rights  as  the  inhabit- 
ants of  a  free  imperial  city,  and  in  constant   feud  with 

^  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Henry  VII J.  Letters  and  Papers,  Foreign  and 
Domestic  (London,  1867),  iii.  i.  p.  445. 


IN   THE   CITY   OF   WORMS  269 

their  bishop.  They  had  endured  many  an  interdict,  were 
fiercely  anti-clerical,  and  were  to  a  man  on  Luther's  side. 
The  crowded  streets  were  thronged  with  princes,  their 
councillors  and  their  retinues;  with  high  ecclesiastical 
dignitaries  and  their  attendant  clergy;  with  nobles  and 
their  "riders'*;  with  laudsknechts,  artisans,  and  peasants. 
Spanish,  French,  and  Italian  merchants,  on  their  way  home- 
wards from  the  Frankfurt  fair,  could  be  seen  discussing  the 
last  phase  of  the  Lutheran  question,  and  Spanish  nobles 
and  Spanish  merchants  more  than  once  came  to  blows  in 
the  narrow  thoroughfares.  The  foreign  merchants,  espe- 
cially the  Spaniards,  all  appeared  to  take  the  Lutheran  side ; 
not  because  they  took  much  interest  in  doctrines,  but  because 
they  felt  bound  to  stand  up  for  the  man  who  had  dared  to 
say  that  no  one  should  be  burned  for  his  opinions.  These 
Spanish  merchants  made  themselves  very  prominent.  They 
joined  in  syndicates  with  the  more  fervent  German  partisans 
of  Luther  to  buy  up  and  destroy  papal  pamphlets ;  they 
bought  Luther's  writings  to  carry  home.  Aleander  curses 
these  marrani}  as  he  calls  them,  and  relates  that  they 
are  getting  Luther's  works  translated  into  Spanish.  It  is 
probable  that  many  of  them  had  Moorish  blood  in  them, 
and  knew  the  horrors  of  the  Inquisition.  Aleander's 
spies  told  him  that  caricatures  of  himself  and  other  pro- 
minent papalists  were  hawked  about,  and  that  pictures  of 
Luther  with  the  Dove  hovering  over  his  head,  Luther  with 
his  head  crowned  with  a  halo  of  rays,  Luther  and  Hutten,' 
the  one  with  a  Bible  and  the  other  with  a  sword,  were 
eagerly  bought  in  the  streets.  These  pictures  were  actually 
sold  in  the  courts  and  rooms  of  the  episcopal  palace  where 
the  Emperor  was  lodged.  On  the  steps  of  the  churches, 
at  the  doors  of  pubHc  buildings,  colporteurs  offered  to  eager 

*  Kalkoff,  Die  DepescheUf  etc.  p.  106. 

*  This  was  probably  the  frontispiece  of  a  small  book  containing  four  of 
Hutten's  tracts,  and  entitled  Gesprdch  BUchlin:  Herr  Ulrichs  von  ffulten, 
Feber  das  Erst :  Feher  das  ander :  Vndlscus,  oder  die  Romische  DrcifaUigkeit : 
Die  Anschawenden  ;  with  the  motto,  Odivi  ecclesiam  malignantium.  It  !■ 
figured  in  v.  Bezold's  Oetchichte  der  deuisehen  Reformation,  p.  807  (Berliiiy 
1890>. 


270  THE   DIET   OF   WORMS 

buyers  the  tracts  of  Luther  against  the  Pope,  and  the  satires 
of  Ulrich  von  Hutten  in  Latin  and  in  German.  On  the 
streets  and  in  open  spaces  like  the  Market,  crowds  of  keen 
disputants  argued  about  the  teaching  of  Luther,  and  praised 
him  in  the  most  exaggerated  ways. 

Inside  the  Electoral  College  opinion  was  divided.  The 
Archbishop  of  Koln,  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  and  his 
brother  the  Archbishop  of  Mainz,  were  for  Luther's  con- 
demnation, while  the  Elector  of  Saxony  had  great  influence 
over  the  Archbishop  of  Trier  and  the  Count  Palatine  of  the 
Rhine.  The  latter,  says  Aleander,  scarcely  opened  his 
mouth  during  the  year,  but  now  "  roared  like  ten  bulls  "  on 
Luther's  behalf.  Aleander  had  his  first  opportunity  of 
addressing  the  Diet  on  February  13  th.  He  spoke  for 
three  hours,  and  made  a  strong  impression.  He  dwelt  on 
Luther's  doctrinal  errors,  which  he  said  were  those  of  the 
Waldenses,  of  Wiclif,  and  of  the  Hussites.  He  said  that 
Luther  denied  the  Presence  of  Christ  in  the  Holy  Supper, 
and  that  he  was  a  second  Arius.^  During  the  days  that 
followed  the  members  of  the  Diet  came  to  a  common 
understanding.  They  presented  a  memorial  in  German 
(February  19  th)  to  the  Emperor,  in  which  they  reminded 
him  that  no  imperial  edict  could  be  published  against 
Luther  without  their  consent,  and  that  to  do  so  before 
Luther  had  a  hearing  would  lead  to  bloodshed ;  they  pro- 
posed that  Luther  should  be  invited  to  come  to  Worms 
under  a  safe  conduct,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  Diet  be 
asked  whether  he  was  the  author  of  the  books  that  were 
attributed  to  him,  and  whether  he  could  clear  himself  of  the 
accusation  of  denying  fundamental  articles  of  the  faith  ; 
that  he  should  also  be  heard  upon  the  papal  claims,  and  the 
Diet  would  judge  upon  them ;  and,  finally,  they  prayed  the 
Emperor  to  deliver  Germany  from  the  papal  tyranny.*  The 
Emperor  agreed  that  Luther  should  be  summoned  under  a 
safe  conduct  and  interrogated  about  his  books,  and  whether 
he  had  denied  any  fundamental  doctrines.  But  he  utterly 
refused  to  permit  any  discussion   on  the  authority  of  the 

*  Reichstagsakten,  ii.  pp.  495  ff.  *  Ibid.  616  S, 


IN    THE    CITY    OF   WORMS  271 

Pope,  and   declared   that   he  would  himself  communicate 
with  His  Holiness  about  the  complaints  of  Germany.^ 

The  documents  in  the  BeichstagsaJcten  reveal  not  only 
that  there  was  a  decided  difference  of  opinion  between  the 
Emperor  and  the  majority  of  the  Estates  about  the  way  in 
which  Luther  ought  to  be  treated,  but  that  the  policy  of  the 
Emperor  and  his  advisers  had  changed  between  November 
1520  and  February  1521.  Aleander  had  found  no 
difficulty  in  persuading  Charles  and  his  Flemish  councillors 
that,  so  far  as  the  Emperor's  hereditary  dominions  were 
concerned,  the  only  thing  that  the  civil  power  had  to  do 
was  to  issue  an  edict  homologating  the  Papal  Bull  banning 
Luther  and  his  adherents,  and  ordering  his  books  to  be 
burnt.  This  had  been  done  in  the  Netherlands.  They 
had  made  difficulties,  however,  about  such  summary  action 
within  the  German  Empire.  Aleander  was  told  that  the 
Emperor  could  do  nothing  until  after  the  coronation  at 
Aachen  (October  1520)  ;2  and  in  November,  much  to  the 
nuncio's  disgust,  the  Emperor  had  written  to  the  Elector  of 
Saxony  (November  28th,  1520)  from  0]3penheira  asking 
him  to  bring  Luther  with  him  to  the  Diet.^  At  that  time 
Luther  had  no  great  wish  to  go  to  the  Diet,  unless  it  was 
clearly  understood  that  he  was  summoned  not  for  the 
purpose  of  merely  making  a  recantation,  but  in  order  that 
he  might  defend  his  views  with  full  liberty  of  speech.  He 
was  not  going  to  recant,  and  he  could  say  so  as  easily  and 
clearly  at  Wittenberg  as  at  Worms.  The  situation  had 
changed  at  Worms.  The  Emperor  had  come  over  to  the 
nuncio's  side  completely.  He  now  saw  no  need  for  Luther's 
appearance.  The  Diet  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  place 
Luther  under  the  ban  of  the  Empire,  because  he  had  been 
declared  to  be  a  heretic  by  the  Eoman  Pontiff.  Aleander 
claimed  all  the  credit  for  this  change ;  but  it  is  more  than 

*  Reichstag sakten,  ii.  pp.  518  flF. 

*  Brieger,  Aleander  uivd  Luther  1521 :  Die  vervollstandigten  Aleander- 
Depeschen  nebst  Untersuchungen  iiber  den  Wormser  Reichstag  (Gotha,  1884), 
p.  19. 

*  Deutsche  Reichstagsakten  uvier  Kaiser  Carl  V.  (Gotha,  1896),  ii.  466  ; 
Brieger,  Aleavder,  etc.  pp.  19,  20. 


272  THE   DIET  OF  WORMS 

probable  that  the  explanation  lies  in  the  shifting  imperial 
and  papal  policy.  In  the  end  of  1520  the  policy  of  the 
Roman  Curia  was  strongly  anti-imperialist.  The  Emperor's 
ambassador  at  Rome,  Don  Manuel,  had  been  warning  his 
master  of  the  papal  intrigues  against  him,  and  suggesting 
that  Charles  might  show  some  favour  to  a  "  certain  Martin 
Lather " ;  and  this  advice  might  easily  have  inspired  the 
letter  of  the  28th  of  November.  At  all  events  the  papai 
policy  had  been  changing,  and  showing  signs  of  becoming 
less  hostile  to  the  Emperor.  However  the  matter  be 
accounted  for,  Aleander  found  that  after  the  Emperor's  pre- 
sence within  Worms  it  was  much  more  easy  for  him  to  press 
the  papal  view  about  Luther  upon  Charles  and  his  advisers.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Germans  in  the  Diet  held 
stoutly  to  the  opinion  that  no  countryman  of  theirs  should 
be  placed  under  the  ban  of  the  Empire  without  being  heard 
in  his  defence,  and  that  they  and  not  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
were  to  be  the  judges  in  the  matter. 

The  two  months  before  Luther's  appearance  saw  open 
opposition  between  the  Emperor  and  the  Diet,  and  abundant 
secret  intrigue — an  edict  proposed  against  Luther,^  which 
the  Diet  refused  to  accept ;  ^  an  edict  proposed  to  order  the 
burning  of  Luther's  books,  which  the  Diet  also  objected 
to ;  *  this  edict  revised  and  limited  to  the  seizure  of 
Luther's  writings,  which  was  also  found  fault  with  by  the 
Diet;  and,  finally,  the  Emperor  issuing  this  revised  edict 
on  his  own  authority  and  without  the  consent  of  the  Diet.^ 

^  Cf.  p.  267,  note. 

^  The  draft  was  dated  February  15th,  and  will  be  found  in  the  Reiehs* 
tagsakten,  ii.  507  ff. 

^  The  answer  of  the  Diet  was  dated  February  19th,  and  is  to  be  found  in 
the  EeichstagsaJcten,  ii.  514  ff.,  and  discussions  thereanent,  pp.  517,  518  f. 

*  The  second  draft  edict  proposed  to  summon  Luther  to  make  recanta- 
tion only,  and  at  the  same  time  ordered  his  books  to  be  burnt,  which  was 
equivalent  to  a  condemnation,  Reichstagsakten,  ii.  520. 

"  The  revised  draft  edict  in  its  final  form  was  dated  March  10th,  four 
days  after  the  citation  and  safe  conduct,  and  it  is  probable  that  it  was  finally 
issued  by  the  Emperor  for  the  purpose  of  frightening  Luther,  and  preventing 
him  obeying  the  citation  and  trusting  to  the  safe  conduct,  KeictiStagsakUn^ 
ii  529  ff.  and  notes. 


Luther's  journey  to  worms  273 

>  The  command  to  appear  before  the  Diet  on  April  16th, 
1521,  and  the  imperial  safe  conduct  were  entrusted  to  the 
imperial  herald,  Caspar  Strum,  who  delivered  them  at 
Wittenberg  on  the  26th  of  March.^  Luther  calmly  finished 
some  literary  work,  and  left  for  the  Diet  on  April  2nd. 
He  believed  that  he  was  going  to  his  death.  "  My  dear 
brother,"  he  said  to  Melanchthon  at  parting,  "  if  I  do  not 
come  back,  if  my  enemies  put  me  to  death,  you  will  go  on 
teaching  and  standing  fast  in  the  truth ;  if  you  live,  my 
death  will  matter  little."  The  journey  seemed  to  the 
indignant  Papists  like  a  royal  progress ;  crowds  came  to 
bless  the  man  who  had  stood  up  for  Germany  against  the 
Pope,  and  who  was  going  to  his  death  for  his  courage; 
they  pressed  into  the  inns  where  he  rested,  and  often 
found  him  solacing  himself  with  music.  His  lute  was 
always  comforting  to  him  in  times  of  excitement.  Justus 
Jonas,  the  famous  German  Humanist,  who  had  turned 
theologian  much  to  Erasmus'  disgust,  joined  him  at  Erfurt. 
The  nearer  he  came  to  Worms,  the  sharper  became  the 
disputes  there.  Friends  and  foes  feared  that  his  presence 
would  prove  oil  thrown  on  the  flames.  The  Emperor 
began  to  wish  he  had  not  sent  the  summons.  Messengers 
were  despatched  secretly  to  Sickingen,  and  a  pension 
promised  to  Hutten  to  see  whether  they  could  not  prevent 
Luther's  appearance.^  Might  he  not  take  refuge  in  the 
Ebernberg,  scarcely  a  day's  journey  from  Worms  ?  Was 
it  not  possible  to  arrange  matters  in  a  private  con- 
ference with  Glapion,  the  Emperor's  confessor  ?  Bucer 
was  sent  to  persuade  him.  The  herald  significantly 
called  his  attention  to  the  imperial  edict  ordering 
magistrates  to  seize  his  writings.  But  nothing  daunted 
Luther.  He  would  not  go  to  the  Ebernberg;  he  could 
see  Glapion  at  Worms,  if  the  confessor  wished  an  inter- 


*  Luther  received  three  safe  conducts,  one  from  the  Emperor  in  the 
citation,  one  from  tlie  Elector  of  Saxony,  and  one  from  Duke  George  of 
Saxony.     Eeichstagsakien,  ii.  526  if. 

*  Cf.  Aleander's  letter  of  April  6th,  1521.  Brieger,  Aleander  un4 
Luther,  etc.  pp.  119  fF, 

1 8* 


274  THE   DIET   OF   WORMS 

view;  what  he  had  to  say  would  be  said  publicly  at 
Worms. 

Luther  had  reached  Oppenheim,  a  town  on  the  Rhine 
about  fifteen  miles  north  from  Worms,  and  about  twenty 
east  from  the  Ebernberg,  on  April  14th.  There  he  for 
the  last  time  rejected  the  insidious  temptations  of  his 
enemies  and  the  distracted  counsels  of  his  friends,  that 
he  should  turn  aside  and  seek  shelter  with  Francis  von 
Sickingen.  There  he  penned  his  famous  letter  to  Spalatin, 
that  he  would  come  to  Worms  if  there  were  as  many 
devils  as  tiles  on  the  house  roofs  to  prevent  him,  and 
at  the  same  time  asked  where  he  was  to  lodge. ^ 

The  question  was  important.  The  Romanists  had 
wished  that  Luther  should  be  placed  under  the  Emperor's 
charge  as  a  prisoner  of  State,  or  else  lodged  in  the  Convent 
of  the  Augustinian  Eremites,  where  he  could  be  under 
ecclesiastical  surveillance.  But  the  Saxon  nobles  and  their 
Elector  had  resolved  to  trust  no  one  with  the  custody  of 
their  countryman.  The  Elector  Frederick  and  part  of  his 
suite  had  found  accommodation  at  an  inn  called  Tlie  Swan^ 
and  the  rest  of  his  following  were  in  the  House  of  the 
Knights  of  St.  John.  Both  houses  were  full ;  but  it  was 
arranged  that  Luther  was  to  share  the  room  of  two  Saxon 
gentlemen,  v.  Hirschfeld  and  v.  Schott,  in  the  latter 
building.2  Next  morning,  Justus  Jonas,  who  had  reached 
Worms  before  Luther,  after  consultation  with  Luther's 
friends,  left  the  town  early  on  Tuesday  morning  (April 
16  th)  to  meet  the  Reformer,  and  tell  him  the  arrangements 
made.  With  him  went  the  two  gentlemen  with  whom 
Luther  was  to  lodge.^  A  large  number  of  Saxon  noble- 
men with  their  attendants  accompanied  them.  When  it 
was  known  that  they  had  set  out  to  meet  Luther,  a  great 
crowd  of  people  (nearly  two  thousand,  says  Secretary 
Vogler),  some  on  horseback  and  some  on  foot,  followed  to 
welcome  Luther,  and  did  meet  him  about  two  and  a  half 
miles  from  the  town.* 

^  Spalatin's  Annales  Be/ormationis  (Cyprian's  edition),  p.  38. 

^  ReichstagsakUn,  ii.  850.  ^  Ibid.  p.  850.         *  Ibid,  p.  853,  no«». 


LUTHER   IN    WORMS  275 

§  4.  Luther  in  Worms. 

A  little  before  eleven  o'clock  the  watcher  on  the  tower 
by  the  Mainz  Gate  blew  his  horn  to  announce  that  the 
procession  was  in  sight,  and  soon  afterwards  Luther  entered 
the  town.  The  people  of  Worms  were  at  their  Morgenimhiss 
or  Fruhmahl,  but  all  rushed  to  the  windows  or  out  into  the 
streets  to  see  the  arrival.^  Caspar  Sturm,  the  herald,  rode 
first,  accompanied  by  his  attendant,  the  square  yellow 
banner,  emblazoned  with  the  black  two-headed  eagle, 
attached  to  his  bridle  arm.  Then  came  the  cart, — a 
genuine  Saxon  Bollwegelin, — Luther  and  three  companions 
sitting  in  the  straw  which  half  filled  it.  The  waggon  had 
been  provided  by  the  good  town  of  Wittenberg,  which  had 
also  hired  Christian  Goldschmidt  and  his  three  horses  at 
three  gulden  a  day.*  Luther's  companions  were  his  sociv^ 
itinerariuSf  Brother  Petzensteiner  of  Niirnberg;^  his 
colleague  Nicholas  Amsdorf ;  and  a  student  of  Wittenberg, 
a  young  Pomeranian  noble,  Peter  Swaven,  who  had  been 
one  of  the  Wittenberg  students  who  had  accompanied 
Luther  with  halbert  and  helmet  to  the  Leipzig  Disputation 
(July  1519).  Justus  Jonas  rode  immediately  behind  the 
waggon,  and  then  followed  the  crowd  of  nobles  and  people 
who  had  gone  out  to  meet  the  Eeformer. 

Aleander  in  his  attic  room  heard  the  shouts  and  the 
trampling  in  the  streets,  and  sent  out  one  of  his  people  to 
find  out  the  cause,  guessing  that  it  was  occasioned  by 
Luther's  arrival.  The  messenger  reported  that  the  pro- 
cession had  made  its  way  through  dense  crowds  of  people, 
and  that  the  waggon  had  stopped  at  the  door  of  the  House 
of  the  Knights  of  St.  John.  He  also  informed  the  nuncio 
that  Luther  had  got  out,  saying,  as  he  looked  round  with 
his  piercing  eyes,  Deus  erit  pro  me,  and  that  a  priest  had 

*  Reichstagsaklen,  ii.  863. 

*  Lingke,  Luiher^s  Heisegeschiehte,  pp.  88  f. 

*  Every  monk  when  on  a  journey  had  to  be  accompanied  by  a  brother 
of  the  Order.  Petzensteiner  left  his  convent  and  married  (July  1522), 
Kolde,  Analecta  Lutherana,  p.  38.  For  the  entry  into  Woims,  <rf. 
Reichstagsakten,  ii.  850,  859  ;  Balan,  Monumenta,  etc.  p.  170. 


276  THE   DIET   OF   WORMS  ' 

stepped  forward,  received  him  in  his  arms,  then  touched 
or  kissed  his  robe  thrice  with  as  much  reverence  as  if  he 
were  handling  the  relics  of  a  saint.  "  They  will  say  next," 
says  Aleander  in  his  wrath,  "that  the  scoundrel  works 
miracles."  * 

After  travel-stains  were  removed,  Luther  dined  with 
ten  or  twelve  friends.  The  early  afternoon  brought  crowds 
of  visitors,  some  of  whom  had  come  great  distances  to  see 
him.  Then  came  long  discussions  about  how  he  was  to  act 
on  the  morrow  before  the  Diet.  The  Saxon  councillors 
V.  Feilitzsch  and  v.  Thun  were  in  the  same  house  with 
him :  the  Saxon  Chancellor,  v.  Brlick,  and  Luther's  friend 
Spalatin,  were  at  The  Swan,  a  few  doors  away.  Jerome 
Schurf,  the  Professor  of  Law  in  Wittenberg,  had  been 
summoned  to  Worms  by  the  Elector  to  act  as  Luther's 
legal  adviser,  and  had  reached  the  town  some  days  before 
the  Eeformer. 

How  much  Luther  knew  of  the  secret  intrigues  that 
had  been  going  on  at  Worms  about  his  affairs  it  is 
impossible  to  say.  He  probably  was  aware  that  the 
Estates  had  demanded  that  he  should  have  a  hearing, 
and  should  be  confronted  by  impartial  theologians,  and 
that  the  complaints  of  the  German  nation  against  Eome 
should  be  taken  up  at  the  same  time;  also  that  the 
Emperor  had  refused  to  allow  any  theological  discussion, 
or  that  the  grievances  against  Eome  should  be  part  of 
the  proceedings.  All  that  was  public  property.  The 
imperial  summons  and  safe  conduct  had  not  treated  him 
as  a  condemned  heretic.^  He  had  been  addressed  in  it  as 
Ehrsamer,  lieber,  anddclitiger — terms  which  would  not  have 
been  used  to  a  heretic,  and  which  were  ostentatiously 
omitted  from  the  safe  conduct  sent  him  by  Duke  George  of 
Saxony.*  He  knew  also  that  the  Emperor  had  nevertheless 
published  an  edict  ordering  the  civil  authorities  to  seize  his 

*  Brieger,  Aleander ^  etc.  p.  143  ;  Zeitschrifif.  Kirchengeschichte,  iv.  326. 

*  Reich$tagsdkten,  ii.  569;  Forstemann,  UrkundenbuchfQSt^  Tisch/reden, 
Ir.  349  ;  Brieger,  Aleander,  etc.  p.  146. 

>  JUichstagsaktm,  ii.  514,  619  f.,  626» 


LUTHER   IN    WORMS  277 

books,  and  to  prevent  more  from  being  printed,  published, 
or  sold,  and  that  such  an  edict  threw  doubts  upon  the 
value  of  the  safe  conduct.^  But  he  probably  did  not  know 
Ibat  this  edict  was  a  third  draft  issued  by  the  Emperor 
without  consulting  the  Diet.  Nor  is  it  likely  that  he 
knew  how  Aleander  had  been  working  day  and  night  to 
prevent  his  appearance  at  the  Diet  from  being  more  than 
a  mere  formality,  nor  how  far  the  nuncio  had  prevailed 
with  the  Emperor  and  with  his  councillors.  His  friends 
could  tell  him  all  this — though  even  they  were  not  aware 
until  next  morning  how  resolved  the  Emperor  was  that 
Luther  should  not  be  permitted  to  make  a  speech.^  They 
knew  enough,  however,  to  be  able  to  impress  on  Luther 
that  he  must  restrain  himself,  and  act  in  such  a  way  as  to 
force  the  hands  of  his  opponents,  and  gain  permission  to 
speak  at  length  in  a  second  audience.  The  Estates  wished 
to  hear  him  if  the  Emperor  and  his  entourage  had  resolved 
to  prevent  him  from  speaking.  These  consultations  probably 
settled  the  tactics  which  Luther  followed  on  his  first  appear- 
ance before  the  Diet.^ 

Next  morning  (Wednesday,  April  17th),  Ulrich  von 
Pappenheim,  the  marshal  of  ceremonies,  came  to  Luther's 
room  before  ten  o'clock,  and,  greeting  him  courteously  and 
with  all  respect,  informed  him  that  he  was  to  appear  before 
the  Emperor  and  the  Diet  that  day  at  four  o'clock,  when 
he  would  be  informed  why  he  had  been  summoned.* 
Immediately  after  the  marshal  had  left,  there  came  an 
urgent  message  from  a  Saxon  noble,  Hans  von  Minkwitz, 
who  was  dying  in  his  lodgings,  that  Luther  would  come  to 
hear  his  confession  and  administer  the  sacrament  to  him. 
Luther  instantly  went  to  soothe  and  comfort  the  dying 
man,  notwithstanding   his   own  troubles.^      We   have    no 

*  Reichstagsakten,  ii.  573. 

'  Ibid.  p.  891,  where  it  is  said  that  the  imperial  entourage  and  the 
dependants  of  the  Curia  hated  a  public  appearance  of  Luther  worse  than 
foreigners  dislike  *'  Einbecker  beer." 

*  Cf.  Luther's  letters  to  Cranach  (April  21st,  1521),  and  to  the  Eleotof 
Frederick,  De  Wette,  Dr.  Martin  Luthers  Brief e,  etc.  i.  588,  599. 

*•  HeicJistagsakten,  ii.  545.  ^  Ibid.  p.  859. 


278  THE   DIET   OF   WORMS 

information  how  the  hours  between  twelve  and  four  were 
spent.  It  is  almost  certain  that  there  must  have  been 
another  consultation.  Spalatin  and  Briick  had  discovered 
that  the  conduct  of  the  audience  was  not  to  be  in  the 
hands  of  Glapion,  the  confessor  of  the  Emperor,  as  they 
had  up  to  that  time  supposed,  but  in  those  of  John  Eck, 
the  Orator  or  Official  of  the  Archbishop  of  Trier.^  This 
looked  badly  for  Luther.  Eck  had  been  officiously  busy 
in  burning  Luther's  books  at  Trier ;  he  lodged  in  the  same 
house  and  in  the  room  next  to  the  papal  nuncio.*  Aleander, 
indeed,  boasts  that  Eck  was  entirely  devoted  to  him,  and 
that  he  had  been  able  to  draft  the  question  which  Eck 
put  to  Luther  during  the  first  audience.* 

§  5.  Luther^ s  first  Appearance  "before  the  Diet  of  Worms} 

A  little  before  four  o'clock,  the  marshal  and  Caspar 
Sturm,  the  herald,  came  to  Luther's  lodging  to  escort 
him  to  the  audience  hall.  They  led  the  Eeformer  into 
the  street  to  conduct  him  to  the  Bishop's  Palace,  where 
the  Emperor  was  living  along  with  his  younger  brother 
Ferdinand,  afterwards  King  of  the  Eomans  and  Emperor, 
and  where  the  Diet  met.^  The  streets  were  thronged; 
faces  looked  down  from  every  window;  men  and  women 
had  crowded  the  roofs  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  Luther  as 
he  passed.  It  was  difficult  to  force  a  way  through  the 
crowd,  and,  besides,  Sturm,  who  was  responsible  for 
Luther's  safety,  feared  that  some  Spaniard  might  deal  the 

*  The  terms  Orator  and  Official  have  a  great  many  meanings  in  Mediaeval 
ecclesiastical  Latin.  They  probably  mean  here  the  president  of  the  Arch- 
bishop's Ecclesiastical  Court.  John  Eck  was  a  Doctor  of  Canon  Law. 
Archbishop  Parker  signed  himself  the  Orator  of  Cecil  {Calendar  of  State 
Papers,  Elizabeth,  Foreign  Series,  1559-1560,  p.  84). 

*  Brieger,  Aleander,  etc.  p.  145.  '  Ibid.  p.  146. 

*  This  paragraph  and  the  succeeding  one  are  founded  on  the  following 
Bources :  The  official  report  written  by  John  Eck  of  Trier  ;  the  Acta  Wormacice, 
a  narrative  in  the  handwriting  of  Spalatin  ;  and  the  statements  of  fourteen 
persons,  Germans,  Italians,  and  a  Spaniard,  all  present  in  the  Ditt  on  the 
17th  and  18th  of  April  1521. 

*  Saichstagsakten,  ii  574. 


Eeformer  a  blow  with  a  dagger  in  the  crowd.  Sv)  the 
three  turned  into  the  court  of  the  Swan  Hotel ;  from  it 
they  got  into  the  garden  of  the  House  of  the  Knights  of 
St.  John ;  and,  as  most  of  the  courts  and  gardens  of  the 
houses  communicated  with  each  other,  they  were  able  to 
get  into  the  court  of  the  Bishop's  Palace  without  again 
appearing  on  the  street.^ 

The  court  of  the  Palace  was  full  of  people  eager  to  see 
Luther,  most  of  them  evidently  friendly.  It  was  here 
that  old  General  Frundsberg,  the  most  illustrious  soldier  in 
Germany,  who  was  to  be  the  conqueror  in  the  famous  fight 
at  Pavia,  clapped  Luther  kindly  on  the  shoulder,  and  said 
words  which  have  been  variously  reported.  "  My  poor 
monk !  my  little  monk !  thou  art  on  thy  way  to  make  a 
stand  as  I  and  many  of  my  knights  have  never  done  in  our 
toughest  battles.  If  thou  art  sure  of  the  justice  of  thy 
cause,  then  forward  in  the  name  of  God,  and  be  of  good 
courage :  God  will  not  forsake  thee."  From  out  the  crowd, 
"  here  and  there  and  from  every  corner,  came  voices  say- 
ing, *  Play  the  man  !  Fear  not  death  ;  it  can  but  slay  the 
body :  there  is  a  life  beyond.' "  ^  They  went  up  the  stair 
and  entered  the  audience  hall,  which  was  crammed.  While  f  "^ 
the  marshal  and  the  herald  forced  a  way  for  Luther,  he  j 
passed  an  old  acquaintance,  the  deputy  from  Augsburg. 
"  Ah,  Doctor  Peutinger,"  said  Luther, "  are  you  here  too  ?  "^ 
Then  he  was  led  to  where  he  was  to  stand  before  the 
Emperor ;  and  these  two  lifelong  opponents  saw  each  other 
for  the  first  time.  "  The  fool  entered  smiling,"  says 
Aleander  (perhaps  the  lingering  of  the  smile  with  which 
he  had  just  greeted  Dr.  Peutinger) :  "  he  looked  slowly 
round,  and  his  face  sobered."  "  When  he  faced  the 
Emperor,"  Aleander  goes  on  to  say,  "  he  could  not  hold 
his  head  still,  but  moved  it  up  and  down  and  from  side 
to  side."  *  All  eyes  were  fixed  on  Luther,  and  many  an 
account  was  written  describing  his  appearance  "  A  man 
of  middle  height,"  says  an  unsigned  Spanish  paper   pre- 

>  £e%eh$tagsakten,  ii.  647.  *  Jbid.  p.  649. 

•  Ikid,  p.  862.  *  Brieger,  Aleander,  etc.  p.  147. 


280  THE    DIET   OF   WORMS 

served  in  the  British  Museum,  "  with  a  strong  face,  a 
sturdy  build  of  body,  with  eyes  that  scintillated  and  were 
never  still.  He  was  clad  in  the  robe  of  the  Augustinian 
Order,  but  with  a  belt  of  hide,  with  a  large  tonsure, 
newly  shaven,  and  a  coronal  of  short  thick  hair."  ^  All 
noticed  his  gleaming  eyes ;  and  it  was  remarked  that  when 
his  glance  fell  on  an  Italian,  the  man  moved  uneasily  in 
his  seat,  as  if  "  the  evil  eye  was  upon  him."  Meanwhile, 
in  the  seconds  before  the  silence  was  broken,  Luther  was 
making  his  observations.  He  noticed  the  swarthy  Jewish- 
looking  face  of  Aleander,  with  its  gleam  of  hateful  triumph. 
"  So  the  Jews  must  have  looked  at  Christ,"  he  thought.^ 
He  saw  the  young  Emperor,  and  near  him  the  papal  nuncios 
and  the  great  ecclesiastics  of  the  Empire.  A  wave  of  pity 
passed  through  him  as  he  looked.  "  He  seemed  to  me," 
he  said,  "  like  some  poor  lamb  among  swine  and  hounds."  * 
There  was  a  table  or  bench  with  some  books  upon  it.  When 
Luther's  glance  fell  on  them,  he  saw  that  they  were  his  own 
writings,  and  could  not  help  wondering  how  they  had  got 
there.*  He  did  not  know  that  Aleander  had  been  collecting 
them  for  some  weeks,  and  that,  at  command  of  the  Emperor, 
he  had  handed  them  over  to  John  Eck,  the  Official  of  Trier, 
for  the  purposes  of  the  audience.^  Jerome  Schurf  made 
his  way  to  Luther's  side,  and  stood  ready  to  assist  in  legal 
difficulties. 

The  past  and  the  future  faced  each  other — the  young 
Emperor  in  his  rich  robes  of  State,  with  his  pale,  vacant- 
looking  face,  but  "  carrying  more  at  the  back  of  his  head 
than  his  countenance  showed,"  the  descendant  of  long  lines 
of  kings,  determined  to  maintain  the  behefs,  rites,  and  rules 
of  that  Mediaeval  Church  which  his  ancestors  had  upheld ; 
and  the  monk,  with  his  wan  face  seamed  with  the  traces 
of  spiritual  conflict  and  victory,  in  the  poor  dress  of  his 

*  ReichstagsaUen,  ii.  632. 

*  De  Wette,  Dr.  Martin  Luthers  Brief e,  etc.  i.  689. 

*  Luther's  Works  (Erlangen  edition),  ryiv.  322. 
*iWtf.  Ixiv.  869. 

'  Brieger,  Aleander^  etc.  p.  146. 


FIRST   APPEARANCE   BEFORE   THE   DIET  281 

Order,  a  peasant's  son,  resolute  to  cleave  a  way  for  the  new 
faith  of  evangelical  freedom,  the  spiritual  birthright  of  all 
men. 

The  strained  silence^  was  broken  by  the  Official  of 
Trier,  a  man  of  lofty  presence,  saying,  in  a  clear,  ringing 
voice  so  that  all  could  hear  distinctly,  first  in  Latin  and 
then  in  German : 

"  *  Martin  Luther,  His  Imperial  Majesty,  Sacred  and 
Victorious  {sacra  et  invida),  on  the  advice  of  all  the 
Estates  of  the  Holy  Koman  Empire,  has  ordered  you  to  be 
Bummoned  here  to  the  throne  of  His  Majesty,  in  order  that 
you  may  recant  and  recall,  according  to  the  force,  form,  and 
meaning  of  the  citation-mandate  decreed  against  you  by 
His  Majesty  and  communicated  legally  to  you,  the  books, 
both  in  Latin  and  in  German,  published  by  you  and  spread 
abroad,  along  with  their  contents :  Wherefore  I,  in  the  name 
of  His  Imperial  Majesty  and  of  the  Princes  of  the  Empire, 
ask  you :  First,  Do  you  confess  that  these  books  exhibited 
in  your  presence  (I  show  him  a  bundle  of  books  written 
in  Latin  and  in  German)  and  now  named  one  by  one,  which 
have  been  circulated  with  your  name  on  the  title-page,  are 
yours,  and  do  you  acknowledge  them  to  be  yours  ?  Secondly, 
Do  you  wish  to  retract  and  recall  them  and  their  contents, 
or  do  you  mean  to  adhere  to  them  and  to  reassert  them  ? ' "  * 

The  books  were  not  named  ;  so  Jerome  Schurf  called 
out,  "  Let  the  titles  be  read."  ^  Then  the  notary,  Maximilian 
Siebenberger  (called  Transilvanus),*  stepped  forward  and, 
taking  up  the  books  one  by  one,  read  their  titles  and 
briefly  described  their  contents.^  Then  Luther,  having 
briefly  and  precisely  repeated  the  two  questions  put  to 
him,  said : 

1  Beichstagsakten,  ii.  638.  *  Ibid,  p.  688. 

» Ibid.  p.  547.  *lbid.  p.  633. 

•  The  names  of  the  books  collected  and  placed  on  the  table  have  been 
curiously  preserved  on  a  scrap  of  paper  stored  in  the  archives  of  the  Vatican 
Library ;  they  were  all  editions  published  by  Frobenius  of  Basel  {Beichstags- 
akten^  ii.  548  and  note).  It  may  be  sutKcieut  to  say  that  among  them 
(twenty-five  or  so)  were  the  appeal  To  the  Chrisflan  Nobility  of  ilie  Germa/n 
Nation^  the  tract  On  the  Liberty  of  a  Christian  Man,  The  Babylonian  Cap- 
tivity of  the  Church  of  Christ,  Against  the  Execrable  Bull  of  Antichrist,  gome 
commentaries,  and  some  tracts  on  religious  subjects  "not  contentious,"  sajs 
the  official  record. 


282  THE    DIET   OF    WORMS 

"  *  To  which  I  answer  as  shortly  and  correctly  as  I  am 
able.  I  cannot  deny  that  the  books  named  are  mine,  and  I 
will  never  deny  any  of  them :  ^  they  are  all  my  offspring ; 
and  I  have  written  some  others  which  have  not  been  named.* 
But  as  to  what  follows,  whether  I  shall  reaffirm  in  the  same 
terms  all,  or  shall  retract  what  I  may  have  uttered  beyond 
the  authority  of  Scripture, — because  the  matter  involves  a 
question  of  faith  and  of  the  salvation  of  souls,  and  because  it 
concerns  the  Word  of  God,  which  is  the  greatest  thing  in 
heaven  and  on  earth,  and  which  we  all  must  reverence, — it 
would  be  dangerous  and  rash  in  me  to  make  any  unpre- 
meditated declaration,  because  in  unpremeditated  speech  I 
might  say  something  less  than  the  fact  and  something  more 
than  the  truth ;  besides,  I  remember  the  saying  of  Christ 
when  He  declared,  "  Whosoever  shall  deny  Me  before  men, 
him  will  I  also  deny  before  My  Father  which  is  in  heaven, 
and  before  His  angels."  For  these  reasons  I  beg,  with 
all  respect,  that  your  Imperial  Majesty  give  me  time  to 
deliberate,  that  I  may  answer  the  question  without  injury 
to  the  Word  of  God  and  without  peril  to  my  own  souL' "  ^ 

Luther  made  his  answer  in  a  low  voice — so  low  that 
the  deputies  from  Strassburg,  who  were  sitting  not  far 
from  him,  said  that  they  could  not  hear  him  distinctly.* 
Many  present  inferred  from  the  low  voice  that  Luther's 
spirit  was  broken,  and  that  he  was  beginning  to  be  afraid. 
But  from  what  followed  it  is  evident  that  Luther's  whole 
procedure  on  this  first  appearance  before  the  Diet  was  in- 
tended to  defeat  the  intrigues  of  Aleander,  which  had  for 

*  This  was  probably  an  answer  to  the  suggestion  made  by  Glapion  to 
Chancellor  Briick,  that  if  Luther  would  only  deny  the  authorship  of  the 
Babylonian  Captivity  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  which  had  been  published 
anonymously,  matters  might  be  arranged. 

*  The  sentence,  '*  And  I  have  written  some  others  which  have  not  been 
named,"  was  an  aside  spoken  in  a  lower  tone,  but  distinctly  {Heichstagsakten, 
ii.  689,  860). 

*  Reichstagsahten,  ii.  548.  In  Eck's  official  report  Luther's  answer  is 
given  very  briefly  ;  instead  of  Luther's  words  the  Official  says  :  "  As  to  the 
other  part  of  the  question,  whether  he  wished  to  retract  their  contents  and 
to  sing  another  tune  {palinodiam  canere),  he  began  to  invent  a  chain  of  idle 
reasons  {eausas  nedere)  and  to  seek  means  of  escape  {diffugias  qucerere) " 
(Eeichstagsakten,  ii.  589). 

*  Beichttagsakien,  ii.  851,  863:  **Wirhabent  den  Luther  nit  wol  horen 
reden,  daun  er  mit  nieierer  stim  geredet"  (Kolde,  Analecta,  p.  30  n.). 


FIRST   APPEARANCE    BEFORE   THE   DIET  283 

their  aim  to  prevent  the  Keformer  addressing  the  Diet  in 
a  long  speech ;  and  in  this  he  succeeded,  as  Briick  and 
Spalatin  hoped  he  would. 

The  Estates  then  proceeded  to  deliberate  on  Luther's 
request.  Aleander  says  that  the  Emperor  called  his 
councillors  about  him ;  that  the  Electors  talked  with  each 
other ;  and  that  the  separate  Estates  deliberated  separately.^ 
We  are  informed  by  the  report  of  the  Venetian  ambassadors 
that  there  was  some  difficulty  among  some  of  them  in 
acceding  to  Luther's  request.  But  at  length  the  Ofi&cial 
of  Trier  again  addressed  Luther : 

"  *  Martin,  you  were  able  to  know  from  the  imperial  man- 
date why  you  were  summoned  here,  and  therefore  you  do 
not  really  require  any  time  for  further  deliberation,  nor  is 
there  any  reason  why  it  should  be  granted.  Yet  His  Im- 
perial Majesty,  moved  by  his  natural  clemency,  grants  you 
one  day  for  deliberation,  and  you  will  appear  here  to- 
morrow at  the  same  hour, — but  on  the  understanding  that 
you  do  not  give  your  answer  in  writing,  but  by  word  of 
mouth.'"* 

The  sitting,  which,  so  far  as  Luther  was  concerned,  had 
occupied  about  an  hour,  was  then  declared  to  be  ended, 
and  he  was  conducted  back  to  his  room  by  the  herald. 
There  he  sat  down  and  wrote  to  his  friend  Cuspinian  in 
Vienna  "  from  the  midst  of  the  tumult " : 

"This  hour  I  have  been  before  the  Emperor  and  his 
brother,  and  have  been  asked  whether  I  would  recant  my 
books.     I  have  said  that  the  books  were  really  mine,  and 

*  Brieger,  Aleander,  etc.  p.  146. 

*  Eeichstagsakten,  ii.  549.  Aleander,  writing  to  Rome,  says  that  the 
Official  went  on  to  say  in  the  name  of  the  Emperor  that  Luther  ought  to 
bear  it  in  mind  that  he  had  written  many  things  against  the  Pope  and  the 
Apostolic  Chair,  and  had  scattered  recklessly  many  heretical  statements 
which  had  caused  great  scandal,  and  which,  if  not  speedily  ended,  would 
kindle  such  a  great  conflagration  as  neither  Luther's  recantation  nor  the 
imperial  power  could  extinguish  ;  and  that  he  exhorted  Luther  to  be  mindful 
of  this  (Brieger,  Aleander,  p.  147).  In  Eck's  official  report  these  remarks  are 
given  as  the  opinions  of  those  princes  who  did  not  wish  that  Luther's  request 
should  be  granted  ;  but  they  must  have  been  included  in  his  speech,  for 
Peutinger  confirms  the  nuncio's  report  {Eeichstagsaktm,  it  689  f.,  860). 


284  THE   DIET   OF   WORMS 

have  asked  for  some  delay  about  recantation.  They  have 
given  me  no  longer  space  and  time  than  till  to-morrow  for 
deliberation.  Christ  helping  me,  I  do  not  mean  to  recant 
one  jot  or  tittle."* 


§  6.  Luther* s  Second  Appearance  hefore  the  Diet, 

I  The  next  day,  Thursday,  April  1 8  th,  did  not  afford  much 
ftime  for  deliberation.  Luther  was  besieged  by  visitors. 
Familiar  friends  came  to  see  him  in  the  morning;  German 
nobles  thronged  his  hostel  at  midday;  Bucer  rode  over 
from  the  Ebernberg  in  the  afternoon  with  congratulations 
on  the  way  that  the  first  audience  had  been  got  through, 
and  bringing  letters  from  Ulrich  von  Hutten.  His  friends 
were  almost  astonished  at  his  cheerfulness.  "  He  greeted 
me  and  others,"  said  Dr.  Peutinger,  who  was  an  early  caller, 
"  quite  cheerfully — *  Dear  Doctor,'  he  said,  *  how  is  your 
wife  and  child  ? '  I  have  never  found  or  seen  him  other 
than  the  right  good  fellow  he  is."  ^  George  Yogler  and 
others  had  "  much  pious  conversation "  with  him,  and 
wrote,  praising  his  thorough  heroism.^  The  German  nobles 
greeted  Luther  with  a  bluff  heartiness — "  Herr  Doctor, 
How  are  you  ?  People  say  you  are  to  be  burnt ;  that  will 
never  do ;  that  would  ruin  everything."  * 

The  marshal  and  the  herald  came  for  Luther  a  little 
after  four  o'clock,  and  led  him  by  the  same  private  devious 
ways  to  the  Bishop's  Palace.  The  crowds  on  the  streets 
were  even  larger  than  on  the  day  before.  It  was  said 
that  more  than  five  thousand  people,  Germans  and 
foreigners,  were  crushed  together  in  the  street  before  the 
Palace.  The  throng  was  so  dense  that  some  of  the  dele- 
gates, like  Oelhafen  from  Niirnberg,  could  not  get  through 
it.*     It  was  six  o'clock  before  the  Emperor,  accompanied 

*  De  Wette,  Dr.  Martin  Luthers  Briefe,  i.  587. 

*  ReichstagsaUen,  ii.  862.  '  Ihid.  p.  853. 

*  Eeichstagsakten,  ii.  549  n.  ;  Luther's  Works  {Krlangen  edition),  Ixiv.  369. 

*  •'  I  was  on  ray  way  to  tlie  audience  to  hear  (Luther's)  speech,  but  the 
throng  was  so  dense  that  I  could  not  get  through  "  (Sixtus  Oelhafen  to  Hector 
Pomer,  Reichstagtakten,  ii.  854). 


SECOND  APPEARANCE  BEFORE  THE  DIET   285 

by  the  Electors  and  princes,  entered  the  hall.  Luther  and 
the  herald  had  been  kept  waiting  in  the  court  of  the  Palace 
for  more  than  an  hour  and  a  half,  bruised  by  the  dense 
moving  crowd.  In  the  hall  the  throng  was  so  great  that 
the  princes  had  some  difficulty  in  getting  to  their  seats, 
and  found  themselves  uncomfortably  crowded  when  they 
reached  them.^  Two  notable  men  were  absent.  The  papal 
nuncios  refused  to  be  present  when  a  heretic  was  permitted 
to  speak.  Such  proceedings  were  the  merest  tomfoolery 
{ribaldaria),  Aleander  said.  When  Luther  reached  the 
door,  he  had  still  to  wait ;  the  princes  were  occupied  in 
reaching  their  places,  and  it  was  not  etiquette  for  him  to 
appear  until  they  were  seated.^  The  day  was  darkening, 
and  the  gloomy  hall  flamed  with  torches.^  Observers  re- 
marked Luther's  wonderfully  cheerful  countenance  as  he 
made  his  way  to  his  place.* 

The  Emperor  had  intrusted  the  procedure  to  Aleander, 
■to  his  confessor  Glapion,  and  to  John  Eck,  who  had  con- 
ducted the  audience  on  the  previous  day.^  The  Official 
was  again  to  have  the  conduct  of  matters  in  his  hands. 
As  soon  as  Luther  was  in  his  place,  Eck  "  rushed  into 
words  "  (prorupit  in  verha).^  He  began  by  recapitulating 
what  had  taken  place  at  the  first  audience ;  and  in  saying 
that  Luther  had  asked  time  for  consideration,  he  insinuated 
that  every  Christian  ought  to  be  ready  at  all  times  to  give 
a  reason  for  the  faith  that  is  in  him,  much  more  a  learned 
theologian  like  Luther.  He  declared  that  it  was  now  time 
for  Luther  to  answer  plainly  whether  he  adhered  to  the 
contents  of  the  books  he  had  acknowledged  to  be  his,  or 
whether  he  was  prepared  to  recant  them.  He  spoke  first 
in  Latin  and  then  in  German,  and  it  was  noticed  that  his 
speech  in  Latin  was  very  bitter.^ 

Then  Luther  delivered  his  famous  speech  before  the 
Diet     He  had  freed  himself  from  the  web  of  intrigue  that 

»  Reichstagsakteny  ii.  864.  *  Walcli,  xv.  2301. 

•  Ibid.  p.  2233.  *  Reichsiagsalcten,  ii.  858. 

*  Brieger,  Aleander ^  etc.  p.  172.  •  Reichsiagsalcten^  ii.  649. 
^  JUd.  p.  650. 


286  THE    DIET   OF   WORMS 

Aleander  had  been  at  such  pains  to  weave  round  him  to 
compel  him  to  silence,  and  stood  forth  a  free  German  to 
plead  his  cause  before  the  most  illustrious  audience  the 
Fatherland  could  offer  to  any  of  its  sons. 

Before  him  was  the  Emperor  and  his  brother  Ferdinand, 
Archduke  of  Austria,  destined  to  be  King  of  the  Eomans 
and  Emperor  in  days  to  oome,  and  beside  them,  seated,  all 
the  Electors  and  the  great  Princes  of  the  Empire,  lay  and 
ecclesiastical,  among  them  four  Cardinals.  All  round  him 
standing,  for  there  was  no  space  for  seats,  the  Counts,  Free 
Nobles  and  Knights  of  the  Empire,  and  the  delegates  of 
the  great  cities,  were  closely  packed  together.^  Ambas- 
sadors and  the  political  agents  of  almost  all  the  countries 
in  Europe  were  there  to  swell  the  crowd — ready  to  report 
the  issue  of  this  momentous  day.  For  all  believed  that 
whatever  weighty  business  for  Germany  was  discussed 
at  this  Diet,  the  question  raised  by  Luther  was  one  of 
European  importance,  and  affected  the  countries  which 
they  represented.  The  rumour  had  gone  about,  founded 
mainly  on  the  serene  appearance  of  Luther,  that  the 
monk  was  about  to  recant;^  and  most  of  the  political 
agents  earnestly  hoped  it  might  be  true.  That  and  that 
only  would  end,  they  believed,  the  symptoms  of  disquiet 
which  the  governments  of  every  land  were  anxiously 
watching. 

The  diligence  of  Wrede  has  collected  and  printed  in 
the  Reichstagsahten^  several  papers,  all  of  which  profess 
to  give  Luther's  speech ;  but  they  are  mere  summaries, 
some  longer  and  some  shorter,  and  give  no  indication  of 
the  power  which  thrilled  the  audience.  Its  effect  must  be 
sought  for  in  the  descriptions  of  the  hearers. 

The  specimens  of  his  books  which  had  been  collected 
by  Aleander  were  so  representative  that  Luther  could  speak 
of  all  his  writings.  He  divided  them  into  three  classes. 
He  had  written  books  for  edification  which  he  could  truly 
say  had  been  approved  by  all  men,  friends  and  foes  alike, 

*  Myconius,  Historia  BeformcUionis  (Leipzig,  1718),  p.  39. 

'  ReicMagsakUn,  ii.  578.  »  Ibid.  pp.  550  flf.,  557  ff.,  691  ff.  etc. 


SECOND  APPEARANCE  BEFORE  THE  DIET    287 

and  it  was  scaicely  to  be  expected  that  he,  the  author, 
should  be  the  only  man  to  recant  the  contents  of  such 
writings  as  even  the  Papal  Bull  had  commended.  In  a 
second  class  of  writings  he  had  attacked  the  papal  tyranny 
which  all  Germany  was  groaning  under;  to  recant  the 
contents  of  these  books  would  be  to  make  stronger  and 
less  endurable  the  monstrous  evil  he  had  protested  against ; 
he  therefore  refused  to  recall  such  writings;  no  loyal 
German  could  do  so.  He  had  also  written  against  indi- 
vidual persons  who  had  supported  the  Papacy ;  it  was  pos- 
sible that  he  had  written  too  strongly  in  some  places  and 
against  some  men ;  he  was  only  a  man  and  not  God,  and 
was  liable  to  make  mistakes ;  he  remembered  how  Christ, 
who  could  not  err,  had  acted  when  He  was  accused,  and 
imitating  Him,  he  was  quite  ready,  if  shown  to  be  wrong, 
by  evangelical  or  prophetic  witnesses,  to  renounce  his 
errors,  and  if  he  were  convinced,  he  assured  the  Emperor 
and  princes  assembled  that  he  would  be  the  first  to  throw 
his  books  into  the  fire.  He  dwelt  upon  the  power  of  the 
word  of  God  which  must  prevail  over  everything,  and 
showed  that  many  calamities  in  times  past  had  fallen  upon 
nations  who  had  neglected  its  teachings  and  warnings. 
He  concluded  as  follows: 

"  I  do  not  say  that  there  is  any  need  for  my  teaching 
or  warning  the  many  princes  before  me,  but  the  duty  I  owe 
to  my  Germany  will  not  allow  me  to  recant.  With  these 
words  I  commend  myself  to  your  most  serene  Majesty  and  to 
your  principalities,  and  humbly  beg  that  you  will  not  permit 
my  accusers  to  triumph  over  me  causelessly.    I  have  spoken 

Luther  had  spoken  in  Latin ;  he  was  asked  to  repeat 
what  he  had  said  in  German.  The  Hall  had  been  packed ; 
the  torches  gave  forth  warmth  as  well  as  light.  Luther 
steamed  with  perspiration,  and  looked  wan  and  overpowered; 
tlie  heat  was  intense.  Friends  thought  that  the  further 
effort  would  be  too  much  for  his  strength.  The  Saxon 
councillor,  Frederick  vcn  Thun,  regardless  of  etiquette, 
called  out  loudly,  "  If   you  cannot  do  it   you   have  done 


288  THE    DIET   OF   WORMS 

enough,  Herr  Doctor."^  But  Luther  went  on  and  finished 
his  address  in  German.  His  last  words  were,  "Here  I 
stand  {Hie  bin  IcJi)" 

Aleander,  the  papal  nuncio,  who  was  not  present,  relates 
that  while  Luther  was  speakiug  of  the  books  in  which  he 
had  attacked  the  Papacy,  and  was  proceeding  "  with  great 
venom "  to  denounce  the  Pope,^  the  Emperor  ordered  him 
to  pass  from  that  subject  and  to  proceed  with  his  other 
matters.  The  Emperor  had  certainly  told  the  Estates  that 
he  would  not  allow  the  question  of  Luther's  orthodoxy  and 
complaints  against  the  Holy  See  to  be  discussed  together; 
and  that  lends  some  support  to  Aleander*s  statement.^  But 
when  it  is  seen  that  not  one  of  the  dozen  deputies  present 
who  write  accounts  of  the  scene  mentions  the  interruption ; 
when  it  is  not  found  in  the  official  report ;  when  it  is 
remembered  that  Charles  could  not  understand  either 
German  or  Latin,  the  story  of  the  interruption  is  a  very 
unlikely  one.  Aleander  was  not  remarkable  for  his  veracity 
— "a.  man,  to  say  the  least,  not  bigotedly  truthful  (non 
mperstitiose  verax)"  says  Erasmus ;  *  and  the  nuncio  on  one 
occasion  boasted  to  his  masters  in  Eome  that  he  could  lie 
well  when  occasion  required  it.^ 

Several  letters  descriptive  of  the  scene,  written  by  men 
who  were  present  in  the  Diet,  reveal  the  intense  interest 
taken  by  the  great  majority  of  the  audience  in  the  appear- 
ance and  speech  of  Luther.  His  looks,  his  language,  the 
attitude  in  which  he  stood,  are  all  described.  When  artists 
portray  the  scene,  either  on  canvas  or  in  bronze,  Luther 
is  invariably  represented  standing  upright,  his  shoulders 
squared,  and  his  head  thrown  back.  That  was  not  how 
he  stood  before  Charles  and  the  Diet.     He  was  a  monk, 

•  Luther's  Works  (Erlangen  edition),  Ixiv.  870. 

•  Brieger,  Aleander,  etc.  p.  162. 

•  Reichstag sakUiiy  ii.  530. 

•  Desiderii  JErasmi  Roterodami  Opera  Omnia  (Leyden,  1703),  iii.  1095  : 
**Jain  audio  multis  persuasum,  ex  meia  scriptis  exstitisse  totam  hano 
Ecclesiae  procellam  :  cujus  veiissimi  ruiuoiis  praecipuns  auctor  fuit  Hierony- 
!aus  Aleander,  homo,  ut  niliil  aliud  dieam,  non  superatitiose  verax.** 

•  Brieger,  Aleander,  etc.  p.  41, 


SECOND  APrEARANCE  BEFORE  THE  DIET   289 

trained  iu  the  conventional  habits  of  monkish  humility. 
He  stood  with  a  stoop  of  the  head  and  shoulders,  with  the 
knees  slightly  bent,  and  without  gestures.  The  only  trace  of 
bodily  emotion  was  betrayed  by  bending  and  straightening  his 
knees.^  He  addressed  the  Emperor  and  the  Estates  with 
all  respect, — "  Most  serene  Lord  and  Emperor,  most  illus- 
trious Princes,  most  clement  Lords," — and  apologised  for 
any  lack  of  etiquette  on  the  ground  that  he  was  convent- 
bred  and  knew  nothing  of  the  ways  of  Courts ;  but  it  was 
noticed  by  more  than  one  observer  that  he  did  not  address 
the  spiritual  princes  present.^  Many  a  witness  describes 
the  charm  of  his  cheerful,  modest,  but  undaunted  bearing.^ 
The  Saxon  official  account  says,  "  Luther  spoke  simply, 
quietly,  modestly,  yet  not  without  Christian  courage  and 
fidelity — in  such  a  way,  too,  that  his  enemies  would  have 
doubtless  preferred  a  more  abject  spirit  and  speech  " ;  and 
it  goes  on  to  relate  that  his  adversaries  had  confidently 
counted  on  a  recantation,  and  that  they  were  correspond- 
ingly disappointed.*  Many  expected  that,  as  he  had  never 
before  been  in  such  presence,  the  strange  audience  would 
have  disconcerted  him ;  but,  to  their  wonder  and  delight, 
he  spoke  "confidently,  reasonably,  and  prudently,  as  if 
he  were  in  his  own  lecture-room."*^  Luther  himself  was 
surprised  that  the  unaccustomed  surroundings  affected  him 
so  little.  "  When  it  came  to  my  turn,"  he  says,  "  I  just 
went  on."  ^  The  beauty  of  his  diction  pleased  his  audience 
— "many  fair  and  happy  words,"  say  Dr.  Peutinger  and 
others.* 

When  Luther  had  finished,  the  OSicial,  mindful  that  it 
was  his  duty  to  extract  from  Luther  a  distinct  recantation, 
addressed  him  in  a  threatening  manner  {increpdbundo 
similis),  and  told  him  that  his  answer  had  not  been  to  the 
point.  The  question  was  that  Luther,  in  some  of  his  books, 
denied  decisions  of  Councils :  Would  he  reafiirm  or  recant 
what   he   had   said   about   these   decisions  ?    the   Emperor 

•  Jieichstagsakien,  ii.  860  n.      ^  Jbid.  p.  860.  «  Ibid.  p.  853. 

•  Ibid.  pp.  550,  561.  *  Myconius,  Historia  ReformcUionis^  p.  89. 

•  Walch,  XV.  233.  '  Heichstagsakten,  ii.  861. 

19* 


290  THE   DIET   OF   WORMS 

demanded  a  plain  {non  cornutum)  answer.  "  If  His  Imperul 
Majesty  desires  a  plain  answer,"  said  Luther,  "  I  will  give 
it  to  him,  neqiLe  cornutum  neque  dentatum,  and  it  is  this : 
It  is  impossible  for  me  to  recant  unless  I  am  proved  to  be 
in  the  wrong  by  the  testimony  of  Scripture  or  by  evident 
reasoning ;  I  cannot  trust  either  the  decisions  of  Councils 
or  of  Popes,  for  it  is  plain  that  they  have  not  only  erred, 
but  have  contradicted  each  other.  My  conscience  is  thirled 
to  the  word  of  God,  and  it  is  neither  safe  nor  honest  to  act 
against  one's  conscience.     God  help  me  !  Amen  ! "  ^ 

When  he  had  finished,  the  Emperor  and  the  princes 
consulted  together;  then  at  a  sign  from  Charles,^  the 
Official  addressed  Luther  at  some  length.  He  told  him 
that  in  his  speech  he  had  abused  the  clemency  of  the 
Emperor,  and  had  added  to  his  evil  deeds  by  attacking  the 
Pope  and  Papists  (papistce)  before  the  Diet.  He  briefly 
recapitulated  Luther's  speech,  and  said  that  he  had  not  suffi- 
ciently distinguished  between  his  books  and  his  opinions ; 
there  might  be  room  for  discussion  had  Luther  brought 
forward  anything  new,  but  his  errors  were  old— the  errors 
of  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons,  of  WicHf,  of  John  and  Jerome 
Huss  (the  learned  Official  gave  Huss  a  brother  unknown 
to  history),^  which  were  decided  upon  at  the  Council  of 
Constance,  where  the  whole  German  nation  had  been 
gathered  together;  he  again  asked  him  to  retract  such 
opinions.  To  this  Luther  replied  as  before,  that  General 
Councils  had  erred,  and  that  his  conscience  did  not  allow 
him  to  retract.  By  this  time  the  torches  had  burnt  to 
their  sockets,  and  the  hall  was  growing  dark.*  Wearied 
with  the  crowd  and  the  heat,  numbers  were  preparing  to 
leave.  The  Official,  making  a  last  effi)rt,  called  out  loudly, 
"  Martin,  let  your  conscience  alone ;  recant  your  errors  and 
you  will  be  safe  and  sound ;  you  can  never  show  that  a 
Council  has  erred."  Luther  declared  that  Councils  had 
erred,  and  that  he  could  prove  it.^     Upon  this  the  Emperor 

1  EeichstagsaJden,  ii.  555.  ^  Ihid.  p.  591.  •  Ihid.  p.  861  n. 

*  Cochlseus,  Cominentarius,  etc.  p.  34, 

•  Reichstagsakten  ii.  556-558,  581,  582,  591-594. 


SECOND   APPEARANCE   BEFORE  THE   DIET        291 

made  a  sign  to  end  the  matter.^  The  last  words  Luther 
was  heard  to  say  were,  "  God  come  to  my  help  "  (Got  hum 
mir  zu  hilf)? 

It  is  evident  from  almost  all  the  reports  that  from  the 
time  that  Luther  had  finished  his  great  speech  there  was  a 
good  deal  of  confusion,  and  probably  of  conversation,  among 
the  audience.  All  that  the  greater  portion  of  those  present 
heard  was  an  altercation  between  Luther  and  the  Official, 
due,  most  of  the  Germans  thought,  to  the  overbearing 
conduct  of  Eck,  and  which  the  Italians  and  Spaniards 
attributed  to  the  pertinacity  of  Luther.^  "  Luther  asserted 
that  Councils  had  erred  several  times,  and  had  given 
decisions  against  the  law  of  God.  The  Official  said  No  ; 
Luther  said  Yes,  and  that  he  could  prove  it.  So  the  matter 
came  to  an  end  for  that  time."*  But  all  understood  that 
there  was  a  good  deal  said  about  the  Council  of  Constance. 

The  Emperor  left  his  throne  to  go  to  his  private 
rooms;  the  Electors  and  the  princes  sought  their  hotels. 
A  number  of  Spaniards,  perceiving  that  Luther  turned  to 
leave  the  tribunal,  broke  out  into  hootings,  and  followed 
"  the  man  of  God  with  prolonged  bowlings."  ^  Then  the 
Germans,  nobles  and  delegates  from  the  towns,  ringed  him 

*  Aleander  wrote  that  the  Emperor  said  that  he  did  not  wish  to  hear 
more  :  et  allora  fii  detto  Tper  Cesar ,  che  hastava  et  che  non  volevapiit  udir,  ex 
quo  questui  negava  U  Concilii  (Brieger,  Aleander ^  etc.  p.  163). 

2  ReichstagsaUen,  ii.  862  (Dr.  Peutinger  to  the  Council  of  Augsburg). 
The  famous  ending :  Hie  stehe  ich,  ich  kann  nicM  anders  thun,  Gott  helfe 
mir,  Amen,  which  gives  such  a  dramatic  finish  to  the  whole  scene,  is  not 
to  be  found  in  the  very  earliest  records.  It  first  appeared  in  an  account 
published  in  Wittenberg  without  date,  but  which  is  probably  very  early, 
and  also  in  the  1546  edition  of  Luther's  Works.  Various  versions  are  given 
of  the  last  words  Luther  uttered — GoU  hel/  mir,  Am^n,  in  the  Acta  Worm- 
acice  {Reichstagsaklen,  ii.  557),  which  are  believed  to  have  been  corrected  by 
Luther  himself ;  So  helf  mir  Gott,  denn  kein  widerspruch  kan  ich  nicht  thun, 
Amen,  is  given  by  Spalatin  in  his  Annales  (p.  41).  Every  description  of  the 
scene  coming  from  contemporary  sources  shows  that  there  was  a  great  deal 
of  confusion;  it  is  most  likely  that  in  the  excitement  men  carried  awa^ 
only  a  general  impression  and  not  an  exact  recollection  of  the  last  words 
Luther.  If  it  were  not  for  Dr.  Peutinger's  very  definite  statement  written 
almost  immediately  after  the  event,  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  the 
dramatic  ending  should  not  have  been  the  real  one. 

»  Reichstagsaklen,  ii.  636.  *  Ibid.  p.  862.  » Ibid.  p.  668. 


292  THE    DIET   OF   WORMS 

round  to  protect  him,  and  as  they  passed  from  the  hall 

they  all  at  once,  and  Luther  in  the  midst  of  them,  thrust 
forward  arms  and  raised  hands  high  above  their  heads,  in 
the  way  that  a  German  knight  was  accustomed  to  do  wlien 
he  had  unhorsed  his  antagonist  in  the  tourney,  or  that  a 
German  landsknecht  did  when  he  had  struck  a  victorious 
blow.  The  Spaniards  rushed  to  the  door  shouting  after 
Luther,  "  To  the  fire  with  him,  to  the  fire  ! "  ^  The  crowd 
on  the  street  thought  that  Luther  was  being  sent  to  prison, 
and  thought  of  a  rescue."^  Luther  calmed  them  by  saying 
that  the  company  were  escorting  him  home.  Thus,  with 
hands  held  high  in  stern  challenge  to  Holy  Eoman  Empire 
and  mediaeval  Church,  they  accompanied  Luther  to  his 
lodging 

Friends  had  got  there  before  him — Spalatin,  ever 
faithful ;  Oelhafen,  who  had  not  been  able  to  reach  his 
place  in  the  Diet  because  of  the  throng.  Luther,  with 
beaming  face,  stretched  out  both  his  hands,  exclaiming, 
"  I  am  through,  I  am  through ! "  ^  In  a  few  minutes 
Spalatin  was  called  away.  He  soon  returned.  The  old 
Elector  had  summoned  him  only  to  say,  "  How  well,  father, 
Dr.  Luther  spoke  this  day  before  the  Emperor  and  the 
Estates  ;  but  he  is  too  bold  for  me."  The  sturdy  old  German 
prince  wrote  to  his  brother  John,  "  From  what  I  have 
heard  this  day,  I  will  never  believe  that  Luther  is  a  heretic  " ; 
and  a  few  days  later,  "  At  this  Diet,  not  only  Annas  and 
Caiaphas,  but  also  Pilate  and  Herod,  have  conspired  against 
Luther."  Frederick  of  Saxony  was  no  Lutheran,  like  his 
brother  John  and  his  nephew  John  Frederick  ;  and  he 
was  the  better  able  to  express  what  most  German  princes 
were  thinking  about  Luther  and  his  appearance  before  the 

*  ReichstagsaMen,  ii.  636.  Aleander  says  that  Luther  alone  raised  hia 
hand  and  made  this  gesture  ;  he  was  not  present ;  the  Spaniard  who 
recounts  the  incident  as  given  above  was  a  spectator  of  the  scene. 

2  Luther's   Works  (Erlaugen  edition),  Ixiv.  370  ;  Wrampelmeyer,   Tage- 
huch  uber  Dr.  Martin  Luther,  gefiihrt  von  Dr.   Conrad  Cordatus,  p.  477  ; 
et  deseendi  de  pretorio  condudus,  do  sprangen  Gesellen  herfur^  die  aagten, 
•  Wie,  furt  yhr  yhn  gefaagen  ?     Das  must  nicht  sein." 

*  Beichstagsakten,  U.  853. 


THE   CONFERENCES  293 

Diet.  Even  DuInG  George  was  stirred  to  a  momentary 
admiration  ;  and  Dulco  Eric  of  Brunswick,  who  had  taken 
the  papal  side,  could  not  sit  down  to  supper  without  sending 
Luther  a  can  of  Einbecker  beer  from  his  own  table.^  As  for 
the  commonalty,  there  was  a  wild  uproar  in  the  streets  of 
Worms  that  night — men  cursing  the  Spaniards  and  Italians, 
and  praising  Luther,  who  had  compelled  the  Emperor  and 
the  prelates  to  hear  what  he  had  to  say,  and  who  had 
voiced  the  complaints  of  the  Fatherland  against  the  Eoman 
Curia  at  the  risk  of  his  life.  The  voice  of  the  people  found 
utterance  in  a  placard,  which  next  morning  was  seen  posted 
up  on  the  street  corners  of  the  town,  "  Woe  to  the  land 
whose  king  is  a  child."  It  was  the  beginning  of  the 
disillusion  of  Germany.  The  people  had  believed  that 
they  were  securing  a  German  Emperor  when,  in  a  fit  of 
enthusiasm,  they  had  called  upon  the  Electors  to  choose 
the  grandson  of  Maximilian.  They  were  beginning  to  find 
that  they  had  selected  a  Spaniard. 

§  7.   The  Conferences, 

Next  day  (April  19th)  the  Emperor  proposed  that 
Luther  should  be  placed  under  the  ban  of  the  Empire. 
The  Estates  were  not  satisfied,  and  insisted  that  something 
should  be  done  to  effect  a  compromise.  Luther  had  not 
been  treated  as  they  had  proposed  in  their  memorandum  of 
the  19th  February.  He  had  been  peremptorily  ordered  to 
retract.  The  Emperor  had  permitted  Aleander  to  regulate 
the  order  of  procedure  on  the  day  previous  (April  18th), 
and  the  result  had  not  been  satisfactory.  Even  the  Elector 
of  Brandenburg  and  his  brother,  the  hesitating  Archbishop 
of  Mainz,  did  not  wish  matters  to  remain  as  they  were. 
They  knew  the  feelings  of  the  German  people,  if  they  were 
ignorant  of  the  Emperor's  diplomatic  dealings  with  the 
Pope.  The  Emperor  gave  way,  but  told  them  that  he  would 
let  them  hear  his  own  view  of  the  matter.  He  produced 
a  Bheet  of  paper,  and  read  a  short  statement  prepared  by 

*  Selnecker,  Historia  .  .  .  D.  M.  Lutheri  (1575),  p.  108. 


294  THE   DIET   OF   WORMS 

himself  in  the  French  tongue — the  language  with  which 
Charles  was  most  familiar.  It  was  tlie  memorable  declara- 
tion of  his  own  religious  position,  which  has  been  referred 
to  already.^  Aleander  reports  that  several  of  the  princes 
became  pale  as  death  when  they  heard  it.^  In  later 
discussions  the  Emperor  asserted  with  warmth  that  he 
would  never  change  one  iota  of  his  declaration. 

Nevertheless,  the  Diet  appointed  a  Commission  (April 
22nd)  to  confer  with  Luther,  and  at  its  head  was  placed 
the  Archbishop  of  Trier,  who  was  perhaps  the  only  one 
among  the  higher  ecclesiastics  of  Germany  whom  Luther 
thoroughly  trusted.  They  had  several  meetings  with  the 
t  Reformer,  the  first  being  on  the  24th  of  April.  All  the 
members  of  the  Commission  were  sincerely  anxious  to 
arrange  a  compromise  ;  but  after  the  Emperor's  declaration 
that  was  impossible,  as  Luther  himself  clearly  saw.  No  set 
of  resolutions,  however  skilfully  framed,  could  reconcile  the 
Emperor's  belief  that  a  General  Council  was  infallible  and 
Luther's  phrase,  "  a  conscience  bound  to  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures." No  proposals  to  leave  the  final  decision  to  the 
Emperor  and  the  Pope,  to  the  Emperor  alone,  to  the 
Emperor  and  the  Estates,  to  a  future  General  Council  (all 
of  which  were  made),  could  patch  up  a  compromise  between 
two  such  contradictory  standpoints.  Compromise  must 
fail  in  a  fight  of  faiths,  and  that  was  the  nature  of  the 
opposition  between  Charles  v.  and  Luther  throughout  their 
lives.  What  divided  them  was  no  subordinate  question 
about  doctrine  or  ritual ;  it  was  fundamental,  amounting  to 
an  entirely  different  conception  of  the  whole  round  of 
religion.  The  moral  authority  of  the  individual  conscience 
confronted  the  legal  authority  of  an  ecclesiastical  assembly. 
In  after  days  the  monk  regretted  that  he  had  not  spoken 
out  more  boldly  before  the  Diet.     Shortly  before  his  death, 

*  Of.  p.  264-5.  The  complete  text  of  the  Emperor's  declaration  is  to  be 
found  in  the  ReichstagsaTcteny  ii.  594  ;  Forsteniann,  Neues  Urkundenbuch 
zur  Geschichfe  der  evangeliscJien  Kirchen-Rpformation  (Hamburg,  1842),  L  75 ; 
Armstrong,  The  Emperor  Charles  V.,  i.  70  (London,  1902). 

*Brieger,  Aleander  und  Luther  1521,  p.  154  (Gotha,  1884):  Dove  molti 
rmuuero  piA  pallidi  che  sefossero  stati  morti. 


Luther's  disappearance  295 

the  Emperor  expressed  liis  regret  that  he  had  not  burned 
the  obstinate  heretic.  When  the  Commission  had  failed, 
Luther  asked  leave  to  reveal  his  whole  innermost  thoughts 
to  the  Archbishop  of  Trier,  under  the  seal  of  confession, 
and  the  two  had  a  memorable  private  interview.  Aleander 
fiercely  attacked  the  Archbishop  for  refusing  to  disclose 
what  passed  between  them ;  but  the  prelate  was  a  German 
bishop  with  a  conscience,  and  not  an  unscrupulous 
dependant  on  a  shameless  Curia.  No  one  knew  what 
Luther's  confession  was.  The  Commission  had  to  report 
that  its  efforts  had  proved  useless.  Luther  was  ordered  to 
leave  Worms  and  return  to  Wittenberg,  without  preaching 
on  the  journey ;  his  safe  conduct  was  to  expire  in  twenty- 
one  days  after  the  26  th  of  April.  At  their  expiry  he  was 
liable  to  be  seized  and  put  to  death  as  a  pestilent  heretic. 
There  remained  only  to  draft  and  publish  the  edict  con- 
taining the  ban.     The  days  passed,  and  it  did  not  appear. 

Suddenly  the  startling  news  reached  Worms  that 
Luther  had  disappeared,  no  one  knew  where.  Aleander,  as 
usual,  had  the  most  exact  information,  and  gives  the  fullest 
account  of  the  rumours  which  were  flying  about.  Coch- 
Iseus,  who  was  at  Frankfurt,  sent  him  a  man  who  had 
been  at  Eisenach,  had  seen  Luther's  uncle,  and  had  been 
told  by  him  about  the  capture.  Five  horsemen  had  dashed 
at  the  travelling  waggon,  had  seized  Luther,  and  had  ridden 
off  with  him.  Who  the  captors  were  or  by  whose  authority 
they  had  acted,  no  one  could  tell.  "  Some  blame  me,"  says 
Aleander,  "  others  the  Archbishop  of  Mainz :  would  God  it 
were  true ! "  Some  thought  that  Sickingen  had  carried 
him  off  to  protect  him ;  others,  the  Elector  of  Saxony ; 
others,  the  Count  of  Mansfeld.  One  persistent  rumour 
declared  that  a  personal  enemy  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony, 
one  Hans  Beheim,  had  been  the  captor ;  and  the  Emperor 
rather  believed  it.  On  May  14th  a  letter  reached  Worms 
saying  that  Luther's  body  had  been  found  in  a  silver-mine 
pierced  with  a  dagger.  The  news  flew  over  Germany  and 
beyond  it  that  Luther  had  been  done  to  death  by  emissaries 
of  the  Eoman  Curia ;  and  so  persistent  was  the  belief,  that 


^y 


296  THE    DIET    OF   WORMS 

Aleander  prepared  to  justify  the  deed  by  alleging  that  the 
Reformer  had  broken  the  imperial  safe  conduct  by  preaching 
at  Eisenach  and  by  addressing  a  concourse  of  people  at 
Frankfurt.^  Albert  Durer,  in  Ghent,  noted  down  in  his 
private  diary  that  Luther,  "  the  God-inspired  man,"  had 
been  slain  by  the  Pope  and  his  priests  as  our  Lord  had 
been  put  to  death  by  the  priests  in  Jerusalem.  "  0  God, 
if  Luther  is  dead,  who  else  can  expound  the  Holy  Gospel 
to  us ! "  *  Friends  wrote  distracted  letters  to  Wittenberg 
imploring  Luther  to  tell  them  whether  he  was  alive  or 
imprisoned.^  The  news  created  the  greatest  consternation 
and  indignation  in  Worms.  The  Emperor's  decision  had 
been  little  liked  even  by  the  princes  most  incensed  against 
Luther.  Aleander  could  not  get  even  the  Archbishop  of 
Mainz  to  promise  that  he  would  publish  it.  When  the 
Commission  of  the  Diet  had  failed  to  effect  a  compromise, 
the  doors  of  the  Eathhaus  and  of  other  public  buildings 
in  Worms  had  been  placarded  with  an  intimation  that 
four  hundred  knights  had  sworn  that  they  would  not 
leave  Luther  unavenged,  and  the  ominous  words  Bundschuh, 
Bundschuh,  Bundschuh  had  appeared  on  it.  The  Emperor 
had  treated  the  matter  lightly ;  but  the  German  Romanist 
princes  had  been  greatly  alarmed.*  They  knew,  if  he  did 
not,  that  the  union  of  peasants  with  the  lower  nobility  had 
been  a  possible  source  of  danger  to  Germany  for  nearly  a 
century;  they  remembered  that  it  was  this  combination 
which  had  made  the  great  Bohemian  rising  successful. 
Months  after  the  Diet  had  risen,  Romanist  partisans  in 
Germany  sent  anxious  communications  to  the  Pope  about 

1  Brieger,  LutTier  und  Aleander  1521  (Gotha,  1884),  pp.  208  flF.  ;  Kalkoff, 
Die  Depeschen  des  Nuntius  Aleander  vom  Wormser  Reichstage  1521  (Halle, 
1897),  pp.  235  ff. 

-  Leitscliuh,  Albrechi  Diirer's  Tagebuch  der  Reise  in  die  Niederlaride 
(Leipzig,  1884),  pp.  82-84. 

*  Kolde,  Analeeta  Imtherana  (Gotha,  1883),  pp.  31,  32 :  **  Quare,  mi 
doctissime  Liitliere,  si  me  amas,  si  reliquos,  qui  adhuc  mecum  curam  tui 
habent,  Evangeliique  Dei,  per  te  tanto  labore,  tanta  cura,  tot  sudoribus,  tot 
perieulis  prsedicati  fac  sciamus,  an  vivas,  an  captus  sis." 

*  Brieger,  Luther  und  Aleander  1521  (Gotha,  1884),  p.  158  ;  Kalkoff,  Die 
Deiieschen  des  Nuntius  Aleander  (Halle,  1897),  p.  182. 


THE    BAN  297 

the  dangers  of  a  combination  of  the  leRser  nobility  with  the 
peasants.^  The  condition  of  Worms  had  been  bad  enough 
before,  and  when  the  news  of  Luther's  murder  reached  the 
town  the  excitement  passed  all  bounds.  The  whole  of  the 
Imperial  Court  was  in  an  uproar.  When  Aleander  was 
in  the  royal  apartments  the  highest  nobles  in  Germany 
pressed  round  him,  telling  him  that  he  would  be  murdered 
even  if  he  were  "  clinging  to  the  Emperor's  bosom."  Men 
crowded  his  room  to  give  him  information  of  conspiracies  to 
slay  both  himself  and  the  senior  Legate  Caraccioli.*  The 
excitement  abated  somewhat,  but  the  wiser  German  princes 
recognised  the  abiding  gravity  of  the  situation,  and  how 
little  the  Emperor's  decision  had  done  to  end  the  Lutheran 
movement.  The  true  story  of  Luther's  disappearance  was 
not  known  until  long  afterwards.  After  the  failure  of  the 
conferences,  the  Elector  of  Saxony  summoned  two  of  his 
councillors  and  his  chaplain  and  private  secretary,  Spalatin, 
and  asked  them  to  see  that  Luther  was  safely  hidden  until 
the  immediate  danger  was  past.  They  were  to  do  what 
they  pleased  and  inform  him  of  nothing.  Many  weeks 
passed  before  the  Elector  and  his  brother  John  knew  that 
Luther  was  safe,  living  in  their  own  castle  on  the  Wart- 
burg.  This  was  his  "  Patmos,"  where  he  doffed  his  monkish 
robes,  let  the  hair  grow  over  his  tonsure,  was  clad  as  a 
knight,  and  went  by  the  name  of  Junker  Georg.  His 
disappearance  did  not  mean  that  he  ceased  to  be  a 
great  leader  of  men ;  but  it  dates  the  beginning  of  the 
national  opposition  to  Eome. 


§  8.   The  Ban. 

\        After  long  delay,  the  imperial  mandate  against  Luther 

[was  prepared.     It  was  presented  (May  25  th)  to  an  informal 

meeting  of  some  members  of  the  Diet  after  the  Elector  of 

Saxony  and  many  of  Luther's  staunchest  supporters  had 

*  Cf.  Letter  of  Cochlaeus  to  the  Pope  (June  19th)  in  Brieger's  ZeUachrifl 
fOr  KitchengesehichUy  xviii.  p.  118. 

*  Brieger,  Lxdher  und  Aleander  1521  (Gotha,  1884),  p.  211. 


298  THE    DIET   OF   WORMS 

left  Worms.*  Aleander,  who  had  a  large  share  in  drafting 
it,  brought  two  copies,  one  in  Latin  and  the  other  in 
German,  and  presented  them  to  Charles  on  a  Sunday 
(May  26th)  after  service.  The  Emperor  signed  them 
before  leaving  the  church.  "  Are  you  contented  now  ? " 
said  Charles,  with  a  smile  to  the  Legate ;  and  Aleander 
overflowed  with  thanks.  Few  State  documents,  won  by  so 
much  struggling  and  scheming,  have  proved  so  futile.  The 
uproar  in  Germany  at  the  report  of  Luther's  death  had 
warned  the  German  princes  to  be  chary  of  putting  the 
edict  into  execution. 

The  imperial  edict  against  Luther  threatened  all  his 
sympathisers  with  extermination.  It  practically  proclaimed 
an  Albigensian  war  in  Germany.  Charles  had  handed  it  to 
Aleander  with  a  smile.  Aleander  despatched  the  document 
to  Eome  with  an  exultation  which  could  only  find  due 
expression  in  a  quotation  from  Ovid's  Art  of  Love,  Pope 
Leo  celebrated  the  arrival  of  the  news  by  comedies  and 
musical  entertainments.  But  calm  observers,  foreigners  in 
Germany,  saw  little  cause  for  congratulation  and  less  for 
mirth.  Henry  vin.  wrote  to  the  Archbishop  of  Mainz 
congratulating  him  on  the  overthrow  of  the  "  rebel  against 
Christ";  but  Wolsey's  agent  at  the  Diet  informed  his 
master  that  he  believed  there  were  one  hundred  thousand 
Germans  who  were  still  ready  to  lay  down  their  lives  in 
Luther's  defence.^  Velasco,  who  had  struck  down  the 
Spanish  rebels  in  the  battle  of  Villalar,  wrote  to  the 
Emperor  that  the  victory  was  God's  gratitude  for  his  deal- 
ings with  the  heretic  monk ;  but  Alfonso  de  Vald^s,  the 
Emperor's  secretary,  said  in  a  letter  to  a  Spanish  corre- 
spondent : 

"Here  you  have,  as  some  imagine,  the  end  of  this 
tragedy ;  but  T  am  persuaded  it  is  not  the  end,  but  the 

*  The  important  clauses  in  the  Edict  of  Worms  are  printed  in  Emil 
Reich's  Select  Documents  illustrating  Mediceval  and  Modem  History  (London, 
1905),  p.  209. 

*  Letters  and  Papers,  Foreign  and  Domestic ,  of  the  Reign  of  Henry  VIII. , 
III.  1.  p.  cccxxxviiL  Letter  from  Tunstal  to  Wolsey  of  date  January  2l8ti, 
1521. 


THE   BAN  2&D 

beginning  of  it.  For  T  sen  that  the  miiidR  of  the  Gornians 
are  greatly  exasperated  against  the  Roman  See,  and  they  do 
not  seem  to  attach  great  importance  to  the  Emperor's  edicts ; 
for  since  their  publication,  Luther's  books  are  sold  with 
impunity  at  every  step  and  corner  of  the  streets  and  market- 
places. From  this  you  will  easily  guess  what  will  happen 
when  the  Emperor  leaves.  This  evil  might  have  been  cured 
with  the  greatest  advantage  to  the  Christian  common- 
wealth, had  not  the  Pope  refused  a  General  Council,  had  he 
preferred  the  public  weal  to  his  own  private  interests.  But 
while  he  insists  that  Luther  shall  be  condemned  and  burnt,  I 
see  the  whole  Christian  commonwealth  hurried  to  destruc- 
tion unless  God  Himself  help  us." 

Valdes,  like  Gattinara  and  other  councillors  of  Charles, 
was  a  follower  of  Erasmus.  He  lays  the  blame  of  all  on 
the  Pope.  But  what  a  disillusion  this  Diet  of  Worms 
ought  to  have  been  to  the  Erasmians !  The  Humanist 
young  sovereigns  and  the  Humanist  Pope,  from  whom  so 
much  had  been  expected,  congratulating  each  other  on 
Luther's  condemnation  to  the  stake ! 

The  foreboding  of  Alfonso  de  Valdfes  was  amply  justi- 
fied. Luther's  books  became  more  popular  than  ever,  and 
the  imperial  edict  did  nothing  to  prevent  their  sale  either 
within  Germany  or  beyond  it.  Aleander  was  soon  to  learn 
this.  He  had  retired  to  the  Netherlands,  and  busied  himself 
with  auto-da-fds  of  the  prohibited  writings ;  but  he  had  to 
confess  that  they  were  powerless  to  prevent  the  spread  of 
Luther's  opinions,  and  he  declared  that  the  only  remedy 
would  be  if  the  Emperor  seized  and  burnt  half  a  dozen 
Lutherans,  and  confiscated  all  their  property.^  The  edict 
had  been  published  or  repeated  in  lands  outside  Germany 
and  in  the  family  possessions  of  the  House  of  Hapsburg. 
Henry  viii.  ordered  Luther's  books  to  be  burnt  in  England  ;  ^ 
the  Estates  of  Scotland  prohibited  their  introduction  into 
the  realm  under  the  severest  penalties  in  1525.^     But  such 

*  Brieger,  Aleander  und  Luther  15S1  {Goth&,  1884),  p.  263  ;  cf.  pp.  249  ff. 

*  Letters  and  Papers,  Foreign  and  Domestic,  of  the  Reign  of  Heivry  VIII.^ 
iii  449,  485. 

«  Act.  Pari.  Scot.  ii.  295. 


300  THE   DIET   OF   WORMS 

edicts  were  easily  evaded,  and  the  prohibited  writings  found 
tlieir  way  into  Spain,  Italy,  France,  Flanders,  and  elsewhere, 
concealed  in  balos  of  merchandise.  In  Germany  there  was 
no  need  for  concealment ;  the  imperial  edict  was  not 
merely  disregarded,  but  was  openly  scouted.  The  great 
Strassburg  publisher,  Gruniger,  apologised  to  his  customers, 
not  for  publishing  Luther's  books,  but  for  sending  forth 
a  book  against  him ;  and  Cochlaeus  declared  that  printers 
gladly  accepted  any  MS.  against  the  Papacy,  printed  it 
gratis,  and  spent  pains  in  issuing  it  with  taste,  while  every 
defender  of  the  established  order  had  to  pay  heavily  to 
get  his  book  printed,  and  sometimes  could  not  secure  a 
printer  at  any  cost. 


§  9.  Popular  Literature 

I  The  Eeformation  movement  may  almost  be  said  to 
'have  created  the  German  book  trade.  The  earliest  German 
printed  books  or  rather  booklets  were  few  in  number,  and 
of  no  great  importance — little  books  of  private  devotion, 
of  popular  medicine,  herbals,  almanacs,  travels,  or  public 
proclamations.  Up  to  1518  they  barely  exceeded  fifty 
a  year.  But  in  the  years  1518—1523  they  increased 
enormously,  and  four-fifths  of  the  increase  were  contro- 
versial writings  prompted  by  the  national  antagonism  to 
the  Eoman  Curia.  This  increase  was  at  first  due  to  Luther 
alone  ;^  but  from   1521   onwards  he  had  disciples,  fellow- 

*  T.  Ranke  in  "his  Deutsche  Oeschichte  im  Zeitalter  der  Reformatlmi 
(2iid  ed.,  Leipzig,  1882),  ii.  56,  and  Dr.  Burkhardt,  archivist  at  Weimar, 
in  the  Zeitschrift  fur  die  Mstorische  Theologie  (Gotha)  for  1862,  p.  456 — 
both  founding  on  the  confessedly  imperfect  information  to  be  found  in 
Panzer's  Annalen  der  alteren  deutschen  LUteraiur  (1788-1802) — have  made 
the  following  calculations : — the  number  of  printed  books  issued  in  the 
German  language,  and  within  Germany,  from  1480-1500,  did  not  exceed 
forty  a  year;  the  years  1500-1512  show  about  the  same  average;  in  the 
year  1513  the  number  of  books  and  booklets  issued  from  German  presses  in 
the  German  language  was  35  ;  in  1514  it  was  47  ;  in  1515,  46  ;  in  1516,  55  ; 
in  1517,  37  ;  then  Luther's  printed  appeals  to  the  German  people  began  to 
appear  in  the  shape  of  sermons,  tracts,  controversial  writings,  etc.,  and  the 
German  publications  of  the  year  1518  rose  to  71,  of  which  no  less  than  20 


POPULAR   LITERATURE  301 

workers,  opponents,  all  using  in  a  popular  way  the  German 

language,  the  effective  literary  power  of  which  had  been 
discovered  by  the  Eeformer.^  These  writers  spread  the 
new  ideas  among  the  people,  high  and  low,  throughout 
Germany.* 

There  are  few  traces  of  combined  action  in  the  anti- 
Komanist  writings  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  controversy ; 
it  needed  literary  opposition  to  give  them  a  semblance  of 
unity.  Each  writer  looks  at  the  general  question  from 
his  own  individual  point  of  view.  Luther  is  the  hero  with 
nearly  all,  and  is  spoken  about  in  almost  extravagant 
terms.  He  is  the  prophet  of  Germany,  the  Elias  that  was 
to  come,  the  Angel  of  the  Eevelation  "  flying  through  the 
mid-heaven  with  the  everlasting  Gospel  in  his  hands,"  the 
national  champion  who  was  brought  to  Worms  to  be  silenced, 
and  yet  was  heard  by  Emperor,  princes,  and  papal  nuncios. 
Some  of  the  authors  were  still  inclined  to  make  Erasmus 
their  leader,  and  declared  that  they  were  fighting  under 
the  banner  of  that  "  Knight  of  Christ " ;  others  looked  on 
Erasmus  and  Luther  as  fellow-workers,  and  one  homely 
pamphlet  compares  Erasmus  to  the  miller  who  grinds  the 
flour,  and  Luther  to  the  baker  who  bakes  it  into  bread 
to  feed  the  people.     Perhaps  the  most  striking  feature  of 

were  from  Luther's  pen  ;  in  1519  the  total  number  was  111,  of  which  60 
were  Luther's;  in  1520  the  total  was  208,  of  which  133  were  Luther's;  in 
1521  (when  Luther  was  in  the  Wartburg),  Luther  published  20  separate 
booklets  ;  in  1522,  130  ;  and  in  1523  the  total  number  was  498,  of  which 
180  were  Luther's ;  cf.  Weller,  Repertorium  Tyjjograpkicum  (Nordlingen, 
1864-1874),  for  further  information.  From  Luther's  Letter  to  the  Ntirnberg 
Council  (Enders,  v.  244),  it  may  be  infeiTed  that  the  first  edition  of  each  of 
his  writings  was  usually  sold  out  in  seven  or  eight  weeks. 

^  It  was  Luther's  appeal  to  the  Christian  Nobility  of  the  Oerman  Nation 
which  taught  Ulrich  von  Hutten  the  powers  of  the  German  language ; 
Strauss,  Ulrich  von  Hutten,  His  Life  and  Times  (London,  1874),  p.  241. 

'  A  number  of  the  more  important  of  these  controversial  writings  have 
been  reprinted  under  the  title  Flugschriften  aus  der  lieformationszeit  in 
the  very  useful  series  NendrucTce  deutscher  LittercUurwerke,  in  the  course  of 
publication  by  Niemeyer  of  Halle  ;  cf.  also  Kuczynski,  Thesaurus  libel- 
lorum  historiam  Reformatoruin  illusCrantium  (Leipzig,  1870) ;  O.  Schade, 
Satiren  und  Pasquillen  aus  der  Jieformationszeit,  3  vols.  (Hanover,  186^ 
1868). 


302  THE   DIET   OF   WORMS 

[the  times  was  the  appearance  of  numberless  anonymous 
[pamphlets,  purporting  to  be  written  by  the  unlearned  for 
f  the  unlearned.  They  are  mostly  in  the  form  of  dialogues, 
and  the  scene  of  the  conversations  recorded  was  often 
the  village  alehouse,  where  burghers,  peasants,  weavers, 
tailors,  and  shoemakers  attack  and  vanquish  in  argument 
priests,  monks,  and  even  bishops.  One  striking  feature  of 
this  new  popular  literature  is  the  glorification  of  the 
German  peasant.  He  is  always  represented  as  an  upright, 
simple-minded,  reflective,  and  intelligent  person,  skilled  in 
Bible  lore,  and  even  in  Church  history,  and  knowing  as 
much  of  Christian  doctrine  "as  three  priests  and  more." 
He  may  be  compared  with  the  idealised  peasant  of  the 
pre-revolution  literature  in  France,  although  he  lacks  the 
refinement,  and  knows  nothing  of  high-flown  moral  senti- 
ment ;  but  he  is  much  liker  the  Jak  Upland  or  Piers 
Plowman  of  the  days  of  the  English  Lollards.  Jak  Upland 
and  Hans  Mattock  (Karsthans),  both  hate  the  clergy  and 
abominate  the  monks  and  the  begging  friars,  but  the 
German  exhibits  much  more  ferocity  than  the  Englishman. 
The  Lollard  describes  the  fat  friar  of  the  earlier  English 
days  with  his  swollen  dewlap  wagging  under  his  chin 
"  like  a  great  goose-egg,"  and  contrasts  him  with  the  pale, 
poverty-stricken  peasant  and  his  wife,  going  shoeless  to 
work  over  ice-bound  roads,  their  steps  marked  with  the 
blood  which  oozed  from  the  cut  feet;  the  German  pam- 
phleteer pours  out  an  endless  variety  of  savage  nicknames 
— cheese-hunters,  sausage-villains,  begging-sacks,  sourmilk 
crocks,  the  devil's  fat  pigs,  etc  etc.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  most  of  this  coarse  controversial  literature, 
which  appeared  between  1518  and  1523,  came  from  those 
regions  in  South  Germany  where  the  social  revolution  had 
found  an  almost  permanent  establishment  from  the  year 
1503.  It  was  the  sign  that  the  old  spirit  of  communist 
and  religious  enthusiasm,  which  had  shown  itself  spasmodi- 
cally since  the  movement  under  Hans  Bohm,  had  never 
been  extinguished,  and  it  was  a  symptom  that  a  peasants' 
war   might   not   be    far   off.      Very  little  was  needed  to 


POPULAR    LITERATURE  303 

kindle  afresh  the  smouldering  hatred  of  the  peasant  against 
the  priests.  When  German  patriots  declaimed  against  the 
exactions  of  the  Eoman  Curia,  the  peasant  thought  of  the 
great  and  lesser  tithes,  of  the  marriage,  baptismal,  and 
burial  fees  demanded  from  him  by  his  own  parish  priest. 
When  Eeformers  and  popular  preachers  denounced  the 
scandals  and  corruptions  in  the  Church,  the  peasant  applied 
them  to  some  drunken,  evil  -  living,  careless  priest  whom 
he  knew.  It  should  be  remembered  that  the  character 
Karsthans  was  invented  in  1520,  not  bj  a  Lutheran 
sympathiser,  but  by  Thomas  Murner,  one  of  Luther's  most 
determined  opponents,^  when  he  was  still  engaged  in  writing 
against  the  clerical  disorders  of  the  times.  This  virulent 
attack  on  priests  and  monks  had  other  sources  than  the 
sympathy  for  Luther.^  It  was  the  awakening  of  old 
memories,  prompted  partly  by  an  underground  ceaseless 
Hussite  propaganda,  and  partly,  no  doubt,  by  the  new  ideas 
so  universally  prevalent. 

Some  of  this  coarse  popular  literature  had  a  more 
direct  connection  with  the  Lutheran  movement.  A 
booklet  which  appeared  in  1521,  entitled  The  New 
and  the  Old  God,  and  which  had  an  immense  circulation, 
may  be  taken  as  an  example.  Like  many  of  its  kind, 
it  had  an  illustrated  title-page,  which  was  a  graphic 
summary  of  its  contents.  There  appeared  as  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  New  God,  the  Pope,  some  Church 
Fathers,  and  beneath  them,  Cajetan,  Silvester  Prierias, 
Eck,  and  Faber ;  over-against  them  were  the  Old  God  as 
the  Trinity,  the  four  Evangelists,  St.  Paul  with  a  sword, 
and  behind  him  Luther.  It  attacked  the  ceremonies,  the 
elaborate  services,  the  obscure  doctrines  which  had  been 
thrust    on    the   Church  by   bloody  persecutions,  and   had 

*  Murner  was  in  England  in  1523  hoping  for  an  audience  from  Henry 
VIII.,  in  whose  defence  he  had  written  against  Luther.  "The  king  desires 
out  of  pity  that  he  should  return  to  Germany,  for  he  was  one  of  the  chief 
stays  against  the  faction  of  Luther,  and  ordered  "Wolsey  to  pay  him  £100." 
Of.  Letter  of  Sir  Thomas  More  to  Wolsey  :  Letters  and  Papers,  Foreign  and 
Domestic,  Henry  Vlll.,  iii.  ii.  3270. 

'  Compare  chapter  on  Social  Conditions,  pp.  96  ff. 


304  THE    DIET   OF   WORMS 

changed  Christianity  into  Judaism,  and  contrasted  them 
witli  the  unchanging  Word  of  the  Old  God,  with  its  simple 
story  of  salvation  and  its  simple  doctrines  of  faith,  hope, 
and  love.  To  the  same  class  belong  the  writings  of  the 
voluminous  controversialist,  John  Eberlin  of  Giinzburg, 
whom  his  opponents  accused  of  seducing  whole  provinces, 
so  effective  were  his  appeals  to  the  "  common  "  man.  He 
began  by  a  pamphlet  addressed  to  the  young  Emperor,  and 
published,  either  immediately  before  or  during  the  earlier 
sitting  of  the  Diet  of  Worms  in  1521,  a  daring  appeal,  in 
which  Luther  and  Ulrich  von  Hutten  are  called  the 
messengers  of  God  to  their  genemtion.  It  was  the  first 
of  a  series  of  fifteen,  all  of  which  were  in  circulation  before 
the  beginning  of  November  of  the  same  year.^  They  were 
called  the  "Confederates"  {Bundsgenossen).  The  contents 
of  these  and  other  pamphlets  by  Eberlin  may  be  guessed 
from  their  titles — Of  the  forty  days'  fast  hefore  Easter  and 
others  which  pitifidly  oj^fpress  Christian  folk.  An  exhorta- 
tion to  all  Christians  that  they  take  pity  on  Nuns.  Hoio 
very  dangerous  it  is  that  priests  have  not  wives  (the  frontis- 
piece represents  the  marriage  of  a  priest  by  a  bishop,  in 
the  background  the  marriage  of  two  monks,  and  two 
musicians  on  a  raised  seat).  Why  there  is  no  money  in 
the  country.  Against  the  false  clergy,  hao^e-footed  monks, 
and  Franciscans^  etc.,  etc.  He  exposes  as  trenchantly  as 
Luther  did  the  systematic  robbery  of  Germany  to  benefit 
the  Eoman  Curia — 300,000  gulden  sent  out  of  the  country 
every  year,  and  a  million  more  given  to  the  begging  friars. 
He  wrote  fiercely  against  the  monks  who  take  to  this  life, 
because  they  were  too  lazy  to  work  like  honest  people,  and 
called  them  all  sorts  of  nicknames  —  cloister  swine,  the 
Devil's  landsknechtSy  etc.,  twenty -four  thousand  of  them 
sponge  on  Germany  and  four  hundred  thousand  on  the 
rest  of  Europe.  He  tells  of  a  parish  priest  who  thought 
that   he   must   really   begin   to   read   the  Scriptures:    his 

^  Eberlin's  most  important  pamphlets  have  been  edited  by  Enders  and 
published  in  Niemeyer's  Flugschriften  aus  der  ReformationszeU^  and  form 
Nos.  xi.  XT.  and  xviii.  of  the  series  (Halle,  1896,  1900,  1902). 


THE   SPREAD   OF   LUTHER's   TEACHING  305 

parishioners  are  reading  it,  the  mothers  to  the  children 
and  the  house-fathers  to  the  household ;  they  trouble 
him  with  questions  taken  from  it,  and  he  is  often  at 
his  wit's  end  to  answer;  he  asked  a  friend  where  he 
ought  to  begin,  and  was  told  that  there  was  a  good 
deal  about  priests  and  their  duties  in  the  Epistles  to 
Timothy  and  Titus;  he  read,  and  was  horrified  to  find 
that  bishops  and  priests  ought  to  be  "husbands  of  one 
wife,"  etc.  Eberlin  had  been  a  Franciscan  monk,  and  was 
true  to  the  revolutionary  traditions  of  his  Order.  He 
preached  a  social  as  well  as  an  evangelical  reformation. 
The  Franciscan  Order  sent  forth  a  good  many  Keformers : 
men  like  Stephen  Kampen,  who  had  come  to  adopt  views 
like  those  of  Eberlin  without  any  teaching  but  the  leadings 
of  his  heart ;  or  John  Brissmann,  a  learned  student  of  the 
Scholastic  Theology,  who  like  Luther  had  found  that  it  did 
not  satisfy  the  yearnings  of  his  soul;  or  Hke  Frederick 
Mecum  (Myconius),  whose  whole  spiritual  development  was 
very  similar  to  that  of  Luther.  Pamphlets  like  those  of 
EberHn,  and  preaching  like  that  of  Kampen,  had  doubtless 
some  influence  in  causing  popular  risings  against  the  priests 
that  were  not  uncommon  throughout  Germany  in  1521, 
after  the  Diet  of  Worms  had  ended  its  sittings — the  Erfurt 
tumult,  which  lasted  during  the  months  of  April,  May, 
June,  and  July,  may  be  instanced  as  an  example. 

§  10.   The  Spread  of  Luther's  Teaching, 

It  may  be  said  that  the  very  year  in  which  the 
imperial  edict  against  Luther  was  published  (1621)  gave 
evidence  that  a  silent  movement  towards  the  adoption  of 
the  principles  for  which  Luther  was  testifying  had  begun 
among  monks  of  almost  all  the  different  Orders.  The 
Augustinian  Eremites,  Luther's  own  Order,  had  been 
largely  influenced  by  him.  Whole  communities,  with 
the  prior  at  their  head,  had  declared  for  the  Eeformation 
both  in  Germany  and  in  the  Low  Countries.  No  other 
monastic   Order   was   so  decidedly   upon   the  side  of  the 


306  THE   DIET    OF    WORMS 

Keformer,  but  monks  of  all  kinds  joined  in  preaching  and 
teaching  the  new  doctrines.  Martin  Bucer  had  been  a 
Dominican,  Otto  Braunfells  a  Carthusian,  Ambrose  Blauer  a 
Benedictine.  The  case  of  Oecolampadius  (John  Hussgen  (?) 
Hausschein)  was  peculiar.  He  had  been  a  distinguished 
Humanist,  had  come  under  serious  religious  impressions, 
and  had  entered  the  Order  of  St.  Bridget ;  but  he  was  not 
long  there  when  he  joined  the  ranks  of  the  Eeformers,  and 
was  sheltered  by  Franz  von  Sickingen  in  his  castle  at 
Ebernberg.^  Urban  Khegius,  John  Eck's  most  trusted 
and  most  talented  student  at  Ingolstadt,  had  become  a 
Carmelite,  and  had  quitted  his  monastery  to  preach  the 
doctrines  of  Luther.  John  Bugenhagen  belonged  to  the 
Order  of  the  Praemonstratenses.  He  was  a  learned 
theologian.  Luther's  struggle  against  Indulgences  had 
displeased  him.  He  got  hold  of  The  Babylonian  Captivity 
of  the  Christian  Churchy  and  studied  it  for  the  purpose 
of  refuting  it.  The  study  so  changed  him  that  he  felt 
that  "  the  whole  world  may  be  wrong,  but  Luther  is 
riglit " ;  he  won  over  his  prior  and  most  of  his  companions, 
and  became  the  Eeformer  of  Pomerania. 
i  Secular  priests  all  over  Germany  declared  for  the  new 
I  evangelical  doctrines.  The  Bishop  of  Samlund  in  East 
Prussia  boldly  avowed  himself  to  be  on  Luther's  side,  and 
was  careful  to  have  the  Lutheran  doctrines  preached 
throughout  his  diocese ;  and  other  bishops  showed  them- 
selves favourable  to  the  new  evangelical  faith.  Many  of 
the  most  influential  parish  priests  did  the  like,  and  their 
congregations  followed  them.  Sometimes  the  superior 
clergy  forbade  the  use  of  the  church,  and  the  people 
followed  their  pastor  while  he  preached  to  them  in  the 
fields.  Sometimes  (as  in  the  case  of  Hermann  Tast)  the 
priest  preached  under  the  lime  trees  in  the  churchyard,  and 

Oecolampadius  is  thought  by  Becking  to  have  been  the  author  of  the 
celebrated  pamphlet,  Neukarslhans  (Summer,  1521),  often  attributed  to 
Hutten.  Sickingen  is  one  of  the  speakers ;  the  author  shows  an  ac- 
quaintance with  Scripture  and  with  theology  which  Hutten  could  scarcely 
command  ;  and  the  idea  of  ecclesiastical  polity  sketched  seems  to  be  taken 
from  Marsiliuji  of  Padua, 


THE   SPREAD   OF   LUTHER  S   TEACHING  307 

his  parishioners  came  irmed  to  protect  him.  If  priests 
were  lacking  to  preaci  the  Lutheran  doctrines,  laymen 
came  forward.  If  they  could  not  preach,  they  could  sing 
hymns.  Witness  the  poor  weaver  of  Magdeburg,  who  took 
his  stand  near  the  statue  of  Kaiser  Otto  in  the  market- 
place, and  ^ng  two  of  Luther's  hymns,  "Aus  tiefer  Not  schrei 
Ich  zu  dir,"  and  "  Es  wolF  uns  Gott  gnadig  sein,"  while  the 
people  crowded  round  him  on  the  morning  of  May  6  th, 
1524.  The  Burgermeister  coming  from  early  Mass  heard 
him,  and  ordered  him  to  be  imprisoned,  but  the  crowd 
rescued  him.  Such  was  the  beginning  of  the  Eeformation 
in  Magdeburg.^  When  men  dared  not,  women  took  their 
place.  Argula  Grunbach,  a  student  of  the  Scriptures  and 
of  Luther's  writings,  challenged  the  University  of  Ingol- 
stadt,  under  the  eyes  of  the  great  Dr.  Eck  himself,  to  a 
public  disputation  upon  the  truth  of  Luther's  position. 

Artists  lent  their  aid  to  spread  the  new  ideas,  and 
many  cartoons  made  the  doctrines  and  the  aims  of  the 
Keformers  plain  to  the  common  people.  These  pictures 
were  sometimes  used  to  illustrate  the  title-pages  of  the 
controversial  literature,  and  were  sometimes  published  as 
separate  broadsides.  In  one,  Christ  is  portrayed  standing 
at  the  door  of  a  house,  which  represents  His  Church.  He 
invites  the  people  to  enter  by  the  door;  and  Popes, 
cardinals,  and  monks  are  shown  climbing  the  walls  to  get 
entrance  in  a  clandestine  fashion.*  In  another,  entitled 
the  Triumph  of  Truth,  the  common  folk  of  a  German  town 
are  represented  singing  songs  of  welcome  to  honour  an 
approaching  procession.  Moses,  the  patriarchs,  the  prophets, 
and  the  apostles,  carry  on  their  shoulders  the  Ark  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures.     Hutten  comes  riding  on  his  warhorse,  and  to 

'  Hiilsse,  Die  Einfuhrung  der  Reformation  in  der  Stadt  Magdeburg 
(Magdeburg,  1883),  p.  46. 

2  The  woodcut  was  first  used  to  illustrate  Hans  Sachs'  poem,  "Der  gut 
Hirt  und  der  boss  Hirt,  Johannis  am  Zehenden  Capitel  "  ;  and  is  given  in  a 
facsimile  reproduction  of  several  of  Hans  Sachs'  poems,  sacred  and  secular, 
entitled  Harts  Sacks  im  Gewande  seiner  Zeit,  Gotha,  1821.  The  poems  were 
originally  issued  as  Ijrge  broad-sheets  illustrated  with  a  single  woodcut,  and 
were  meant  to  be  fixed  on  the  walls  of  rooms. 


308  THE  DIET   OF   WORMS 

the  tail  of  the  horse  is  attached  a  chain  which  encloses  a 
crowd  of  ecclesiastics — an  archbishop  with  his  mitre  fallen 
off,  the  Pope  with  his  tiara  in  the  act  of  tumbling  and  his 
pontifical  staff  broken ;  after  them,  cardinals,  then  monks 
figured  with  the  heads  of  cats,  pigs,  calves,  etc.  Then  comes 
a  triumphal  car  drawn  by  the  four  living  creatures,  who 
represent  the  four  evangelists,  on  one  of  which  rides 
an  angel.  Carlstadt  stands  upright  in  the  front  of  the 
car ;  Luther  strides  alongside.  In  the  car,  Jesus  sits  say- 
ing, /  am  the  Way,  and  the  Truth,  and  the  Life.  Holy 
martyrs,  follow  singing  songs  of  praise.  German  burghers 
are  spreading  their  garments  on  the  road,  and  boys  and  girls 
are  strewing  the  path  with  flowers.^  Perhaps  the  most 
important  work  of  this  kind  was  the  Passional  Christi  et 
Antichristi}  Luther  planned  the  book,  Luke  Cranach 
designed  the  pictures,  and  Melancbthon  furnished  the  texts 
from  Scripture  and  the  quotations  from  Canon  Law.  Tt  is 
a  series  of  pairs  of  engravings  representlDg  the  lives  of  our 
Lord  and  of  the  Pope,  so  arranged  that  wherever  the  book 
opened  two  contrasting  pictures  could  be  seen  at  the  same 
time.  The  contrasts  were  such  as  these : — Jesus  washing 
the  disciples'  feet;  the  Pope  holding  out  his  toe  to  be 
kissed :  Jesus  healing  the  wounded  and  the  sick ;  the  Pope 
presiding  at  a  tournament :  Jesus  bending  under  His  Cross ; 
the  Pope  carried  in  state  on  men's  shoulders :  Jesus  driving 
the  money-changers  out  of  the  Temple ;  the  Pope  and  his 
servants  turning  a  church  into  a  market  for  Indulgences, 
and  sitting  surrounded  with  strong  boxes  and  piles  of  coin. 
It  was  a  "  good  book  for  the  laity,"  Luther  said. 
i  One  of  the  signs  of  the  times  was  the  enthusiasm 
{displayed  in  the  imperial  cities  for  the  cause  of  Luther. 
'  The  way  had  been  prepared.  Burgher  songs  had  for  long 
described  the  ecclesiastical  abuses,  and  had  borne  witness 

^  Many  of  these  Reformation  cartoons  are  to  be  found  in  G.  Hirth, 
Kulturgeschichtliches  Bilderbuch  aus  drei  Jahrhunderten,  i.  ii.  (Munich, 
1896),  and  one  or  two  in  the  illustrations  in  von  Bezold,  GescMchte  der 
devUdien  Reformation  (Berlin,  1890). 

2  The  Passional  Christi  et  ArUichristi  has  been  reproduced  in  facsimile 
by  W.  Scherer  (Berlin,  1885). 


THE   SPREAD    OF   LUTHER's    TEACHING  309 

to  the  widespread  hatred  of  the  clergy  shared  in  by  the 
townsfolk.  Wolfgang  Capito  and  Frederick  Mecum 
(Myconius),  both  sons  of  burghers,  inform  us  that  their 
fathers  taught  them  when  they  were  boys  that  Indulgences 
were  nothing  but  a  speculation  on  the  part  of  cunning 
priests  to  get  their  hands  into  the  pockets  of  simple- 
minded  laity.  Keen  observers  of  the  trend  of  public 
feehng  like  Wimpheling  and  Pirkheimer  had  noticed  with 
some  alarm  the  gradual  spread  of  the  Hussite  propaganda 
in  the  towns,  and  had  made  the  fact  one  of  their  reasons 
for  desiring  and  insisting  on  a  reformation  of  the  Church. 
The  growing  sympathy  for  the  Hussite  opinions  in  the 
cities  is  abundantly  apparent.  Some  leading  Eeformers, 
Capito  for  instance,  told  their  contemporaries  that  they  had 
frequently  listened  to  Hussite  discourses  when  they  were 
boys ;  and  the  libraries  of  burghers  not  infrequently  con- 
tained Hussite  pamphlets.  Men  in  the  towns  had  been 
reading,  thinking,  and  speaking  in  private  to  their  familiar 
friends  about  the  disorders  in  the  life  and  doctrine  of  the 
Church  of  their  days,  and  were  eager  to  welcome  the  first 
symptoms  of  a  genuine  attempt  at  reform. 

The  number  of  editions  of  the  German  Vulgate,  rude 
as  many  of  these  versions  were,  shows  what  a  Bible- 
reading  people  the  German  burghers  had  become,  enables 
us  to  wonder  less  at  the  way  in  which  the  controversial 
writers  assume  that  the  laity  knew  as  much  of  the 
Scriptures  as  the  clergy,  and  lends  credibility  to  con- 
temporary assertions  that  women  and  artisans  knew  their 
Bibles  better  than  learned  men  at  the  Universities. 

These  things  make  us  understand  how  the  towns- 
men were  prepared  to  welcome  Luther's  simple  scriptural 
teaching,  how  his  writings  found  such  a  sale  all  over 
Germany,  how  they  could  say  that  he  taught  what  all 
men  had  been  thinking,  and  said  out  boldly  what  all  men 
had  been  whispering  in  private.  They  explain  how  the 
burghers  of  Strassburg  nailed  Luther's  Ninety-five  Theses 
to  the  doors  of  every  church  and  parsonage  in  the  city  in 
1518;    how  the  citizens  of   Constance  drove  away  with 


r^lO  THE   DIET    OF   WORMS 

threats  the  imperial  messenger  who  came  to  publish  the 
Edict  of  Worms  in  their  town ;  how  the  people  of  Basel 
applauded  their  pastor  when  he  carried  a  copy  of  the 
Scriptures  instead  of  the  Host  in  the  procession  on  Corpus 
Christi  Day;  how  the  higher  clergy  of  Strassburg  could 
not  expel  the  nephew  and  successor  of  the  famed  Geiler 
of  Keysersberg  although  he  was  accused  of  being  a  follower 
of  Luther;  and  how  his  friend  Matthew  Zell,  when  he 
was  prohibited  from  preaching  in  the  pulpit  from  which 
Geiler  had  thundered,  was  able  to  get  carpenters  to  erect 
another  in  a  corner  of  the  great  cathedral,  from  which  he 
spoke  to  the  people  who  crowded  to  hear  him.  When  the 
clergy  persuaded  the  authorities  in  many  towns  (Goslar, 
Danzig,  Worms,  etc.)  to  close  the  churches  against  the 
evangelical  preachers,  the  townspeople  listened  to  their 
sermons  in  the  open  air ;  but  generally  from  the  first  the 
civic  authorities  sided  with  the  people  in  welcoming  a 
powerful  evangelical  preacher.  Matthew  Zell  and,  after 
him,  Martin  Bucer  became  the  Eeformers  of  Strassburg; 
Kettenbach  and  Eberlin,  of  Ulm ;  Oecolampadius  and 
XJrbanus  Rhegius,  of  Augsburg;  Andrew  Osiander,  of 
Nurnberg ;  John  Brenz,  of  Hall,  in  Swabia ;  Theobald 
Pellicanus  (Pellicanus,  i.e.  of  Villigheim),  of  Nordlingen ; 
Matthew  Alber,  of  Eeutlingen ;  John  Lachmann,  of 
Heilbron ;  John  Wanner,  of  Constance ;  and  so  on.  The 
gilds  of  Mastersingers  welcomed  the  Eeformation.  The 
greatest  of  the  civic  poets,  Hans  Sachs  of  Nurnberg,  was 
a  diligent  collector  and  reader  of  Luther's  books.  He 
published  in  1523  his  famous  poem,  "The  Wittenberg 
Nightingale  "  (Die  Witterribergisch  Nachtigall,  Die  man  jetz 
h'oret  uberall).  The  nightingale  was  Luther,  and  its  song 
told  that  the  moonlight  with  its  pale  deceptive  gleams  and 
its  deep  shadows  was  passing  away,  and  the  glorious  sun 
was  rising,  The  author  praises  the  utter  simplicity  of 
Luther's  scriptural  teaching,  and  contrasts  it  with  the 
quirks  and  subtleties  of  Romish  doctrine.  Even  a  peasant, 
he  says,  can  understand  and  know  that  Luther's  teaching 
is  good  and  sound.     In  a  later  short  poem  he  contrasts 


ANDREW    BODENSTEIN    OF   CARLSTADT  311 

evangelical  and  Eomish  preaching.  The  original  edition  was 
illustrated  by  a  woodcut  showing  two  preachers  addressing 
their  respective  audiences.  The  one  is  saying,  Thus  saith 
the  Lord ;  and  the  other,  Thus  saith  the  Fope, 

§  11.  Andrew  Bodenstein  of  Carlstadt} 

Every  great  movement  for  reform  bears  within  it  the 
seeds  of  revolution,  of  the  "  tumult,"  as  Erasmus  called  it, 
and  Luther's  was  no  exception  to  the  general  rule.  Every 
Eeformer  who  would  carry  through  his  reforming  ideas 
successfully  has  to  struggle  against  men  and  circumstances 
making  for  the  "  tumult,"  almost  as  strenuously  as  against 
the  abuses  he  seeks  to  overcome.  We  have  already  seen 
how  these  germs  of  revolution  abounded  in  Germany,  and 
how  the  revolutionists  naturally  allied  themselves  with  the 
Eeformer,  and  the  cause  he  sought  to  promote. 
I  While  Luther  was  hidden  away  in  the  Wartburg,  the 
^^  revolution  seized  on  Wittenberg.  At  first  his  absence  did 
not  seem  to  make  any  difference.  The  number  of  students 
had  increased  until  it  was  over  a  thousand,  and  the  town 
itself  surprised  eye-witnesses  who  were  acquainted  with 
other  University  towns  in  Germany.  The  students  went 
about  unarmed;  they  mostly  carried  Bibles  under  their 
arms;  they  saluted  each  other  as  "brothers  at  one  in 
Christ."  No  rift  had  yet  appeared  among  the  band  of 
leaders,  although  his  disappointment  in  not  obtaining  the 
Provostship  of  All  Saints  had  begun  to  isolate  Andrew 
Bodenstein  of  Carlstadt.  Unanimity  did  not  mean  dulness ; 
Wittenberg  was  seething  with  intellectual  life.  Since  its 
foundation  the  University  had  been  distinguished  for  weekly 
Public  Disputations  in  which  students  and  professors  took 
part.  Li  the  earlier  years  of  its  existence  the  theses  dis- 
cussed had  been  suggested  by  the  Scholastic  Theology  and 
Philosophy  in  vogue ;  but  since  1518  the  new  questions 
which  were  stirring  Germany  had  been  the  subjects  of 
debate,  and  this  had  given   a   life  and   eagerness  to  the 

*  H.  Barge,  Andrea$  Bodenstein  von  Karldadt,  2  vols.  (Leipzig,  19)6). 


312  THE   DIET   OF   WORMS 

University  exercises.  When  Justus  Jonas  came  to  Witten- 
V»erg  from  Erfurt,  he  wrote  enthusiastically  to  a  friend 
about  the  "unbelievable  wealth  of  spiritual  interests  in 
the  little  town  of  Wittenberg."  None  of  the  professors 
took  a  keener  interest  in  these  Public  Discussions  than 
Andrew  Bodenstein  of  Carlstadt.  He  had  been  a  very 
successful  teacher ;  had  come  under  Luther's  magnetic  in- 
fluence; and  had  accepted  the  main  ideas  of  the  new 
doctrines.  He  had  not  the  full-blooded  humanity  of 
Luther,  nor  his  sympathetic  tact,  nor  his  practical  insight 
into  how  things  would  work.  He  lacked  altogether 
Luther's  solid  basis  of  conservative  feeling,  which  made 
him  know  by  instinct  that  new  ideas  and  new  things  could 
only  flourish  and  grow  if  they  were  securely  rooted  in  what 
was  old.  It  was  enough  for  Carlstadt  that  his  own  ideas, 
however  hastily  evolved,  were  clear,  and  his  aims  beneficent, 
to  make  him  eager  to  see  them  at  once  reduced  to  practice. 
He  had  the  temperament  of  a  revolutionary  rather  than  that 
of  a  Eeformer. 

He  was  strongly  impressed  with  the  fundamental  con- 
tradictions which  he  believed  to  exist  between  the  new 
evangelical  doctrines  preached  by  Luther  and  the  theories 
and  practices  of  the  mediaeval  religious  life  and  worship. 
This  led  him  to  attack  earnestly  and  bitterly  monastic 
vows,  celibacy,  a  distinctive  dress  for  the  clergy,  the  idea 
of  a  propitiatory  sacrifice  in  the  Mass,  and  the  presence 
and  use  of  images  and  pictures  in  the  churches.  He  intro- 
duced all  these  questions  of  practical  interest  into  the 
University  weekly  Public  Discussions ;  he  published  theses 
upon  them  ;  he  printed  two  books — one  on  monastic  vows 
and  the  other  on  the  Mass — which  had  an  extensive  circula- 
tion both  in  German  and  in  Latin  (four  editions  were  speedily 
exhausted).  The  prevailing  idea  in  all  these  publications, 
perhaps  implied  rather  than  expressed,  was  that  the  new 
evangelical  liberty  could  only  be  exercised  when  everything 
which  suggested  the  ceremonies  and  usages  of  the  mediaeval 
religious  life  was  swept  away.  His  strongest  denunciations 
were  reserved  for  the  practice  of  celibacy ;  he  dwelt  on  the 


ZWILLING    AND   CARI^TADT  313 

divine  institution  of  marriage,  its  moral  and  spiritual  neces- 
sity, and  taught  that  the  compulsory  marriage  of  the  clergy 
was  better  than  the  enforced  celibacy  of  the  mediaeval 
Church.  Zwilling,  a  yonng  Augiistinian  Eremite,  whose 
preaching  gifts  had  been  praised  by  Luther,  went  even 
further  than  Carlstadt  in  his  fiery  denunciation  of  the 
Mass  as  an  idolatrous  practice. 

The  movement  to  put  these  exhortations  in  practice 
began  first  among  the  clergy.  Two  priests  in  parishes 
near  Wittenberg  married ;  several  monks  left  their  cloisters 
and  donned  lay  garments ;  Melanchthon  and  several  of  his 
students,  in  semi-public  fashion,  communicated  in  both 
kinds  in  the  parish  church  on  Michaelmas  Day  (Sept.  29  th), 
1521,  and  his  example  seems  to  have  been  followed  by 
other  companies. 

Zwilling's  fiery  denunciations  of  the  idolatry  of  the 
Mass  stirred  the  commonalty  of  the  town.  On  Christmas 
Eve  (Dec.  24-25),  1521,  a  turbulent  crowd  invaded  the 
parish  church  and  the  Church  of  All  Saints.  In  the 
former  they  broke  the  lamps,  threatened  the  priests,  and 
in  mockery  of  the  worship  of  praise  they  sang  folk- 
songs, one  of  which  began :  "  There  was  a  maid  who  lost 
a  shoe " — so  the  indignant  clergy  complained  to  the 
Elector.! 

Next  day,  Christmas,  Carlstadt,  who  was  archdeacon, 
conducted  the  service  in  All  Saints'  Church.  He  had 
doffed  his  clerical  robes,  and  wore  the  ordinary  dress  of  a 
layman.  He  preached  and  then  dispensed  the  Lord's 
Supper  in  an  "  evangelical  fashion."  He  read  the  usual 
service,  but  omitted  everything  which  taught  a  propitiatory 
sacrifice ;  he  did  not  elevate  the  Host ;  and  he  placed  the 
Bread  in  the  hands  of  every  communicant,  and  gave  the 
Cup  into  their  hands.  On  the  following  Sundays  and  fes 
tival  days  the  Sacrament  of  the  Supper  was  dispensed  in 
the  same  manner,  and  we  are  told  that  "  hie  paene  urbs  et 
cuncta  civitas  communicavit  sub  utraque  specie." 

*  Cf.   Barge,   Andreas  Bodenstein  von  Karlstadt,  i.   357  ;  the  letter  is 
printed  in  ii.  568-559. 


314  THE    DIET    OF    WORMS 

During  the  clomng  days  of  the  year  1521,  so  full  of 
excitement  for  the  people  of  Wittenberg,  three  men, 
known  in  history  as  the  Zwickau  Prophets^  came  to  the 
town  (Dec.  27th).  Zwickau,  lying^aFout  sixty-four  miles 
south  of  Wittenberg,  was  the  centre  of  the  weaving  trade 
of  Saxony,  and  contained  a  large  artisan  population.  We 
have  seen  that  movements  of  a  religious-communistic  kind 
had  from  time  to  time  appeared  among  the  German 
artisans  and  peasants  since  1476.  Nicolaus  Storch,  a 
weaver  in  Zwickau,  proclaimed  that  he  had  visions  of  the 
Angel  Gabriel,  who  had  revealed  to  him :  "  Thou  shalt  sit 
with  me  on  my  throne."  He  began  to  preach.  Thomas 
Mlinzer,  who  had  been  appointed  by  the  magistrates  to 
be  town  preacher  in  St.  Mary's,  the  principal  church  in 
Zwickau,  praised  his  discourses,  declaring  that  Storch  ex- 
pounded the  Scriptures  better  than  any  priest.  Some 
writers  have  traced  the  origin  of  this  Zwickau  movement 
to  Hussite  teachings.  Mlinzer  allied  himself  with  the  ex- 
treme Hussites  after  the  movement  had  begun,  and  paid 
a  visit  to  Bohemia,  taking  with  him  some  of  his  intimates ; 
but  our  sources  of  information,  which  are  scanty,  do  not 
warrant  any  decided  opinion  about  the  origin  of  the  out- 
break in  Zwickau.  After  some  time  Storch  and  others 
were  forced  to  leave  the  town.  Three  of  them  went  to 
Wittenberg — Storch  himself,  the  seer  of  heavenly  visions, 
another  weaver,  and  Marcus  Thoma  Stubner,  who  had  once 
been  a  pupil  of  Melanchthon,  and  was  therefore  able  to 
introduce  his  companions  to  the  Wittenberg  circle  of  Ee- 
formers.  Their  arrival  and  addresses  increased  the  excite- 
ment both  in  the  town  and  in  the  University.  Melanchthon 
welcomed  his  old  pupil,  and  was  impressed  by  the  presence 
of  a  certain  spiritual  power  in  Stubner  and  in  his  com- 
panions. Some  of  their  doctrines,  however,  especially  their 
rejection  of  infant  baptism,  repelled  him,  and  he  gradually 
withdrew  from  their  companionship. 

;        Carlstadt  took  advantage  of  the  strong  excitement  in 
[Wittenberg  to  press  on  the  townspeople  and  on  the  magis- 
trates his  scheme  of  reformation;  and  on  Jan.  24th,  1522, 


THE  WITTENBERG  ORDINANCE        315 

the  authorities  of  the  town  of  Wittenberg  published  their 
famous  ordinance. 

This  document,  the  first  of  numerous  civic  and  terri- 
torial attempts  to  express  the  new  evangelical  ideas  in 
legislation,  deserves  careful  study.^  It  concerns  itself 
almost  exclusively  with  the  reform  of  social  life  and  of 
public  worship.  It  enjoins  the  institution  of  a  common 
chest  to  be  under  the  charge  of  two  of  the  magistrates, 
two  of  the  townsmen,  and  a  public  notary.  Into  this  the 
revenues  from  ecclesiastical  foundations  were  to  be  placed, 
the  annual  revenues  of  the  guilds  of  workmen,  and  other 
specified  monies.  Definite  salaries  were  to  be  paid  to 
the  priests,  and  support  for  the  poor  and  for  the  monks 
was  to  be  taken  from  this  common  fund.  Begging, 
whether  by  ordinary  beggars,  monks,  or  poor  students,  was 
strictly  prohibited.  If  the  common  chest  was  not  able 
to  afford  sufficient  for  the  support  of  the  helpless  and 
orphans,  the  townsfolk  had  to  provide  what  was  needed. 
No  houses  of  ill-fame  were  allowed  within  the  town. 
Churches  were  places  for  preaching;  the  town  contained 
enough  for  the  population ;  and  the  building  of  small 
chapels  was  prohibited.  The  service  of  the  Mass  was 
shortened,  and  made  to  express  the  evangelical  meaning  of 
the  sacrament,  and  the  elements  were  to  be  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  communicants.  All  this  was  made  law  within 
the  town  of  Wittenberg ;  and  the  reformation  was  to  be 
enforced.  Not  content  with  these  regulations,  Carlstadt 
engaged  in  a  crusade  against  the  use  of  pictures  and 
images  in  the  churches  (the  regulations  had  permitted 
three  altars  in  every  church  and  one  picture  for  each 
altar).  Everything  which  recalled  the  older  religious 
usages  was  to  be  done  away  with,  and  flesh  was  to  be 
eaten  on  fast  days. 

This  excitement  bred  fanaticism.     Voices  were  raised 

*  The  ordinance  is  printed  in  llicliter's  Die  evangelischen  Kirchen- 
ordnungen  des  sechszehnten  Jahrhunderts  (Weimar,  1846),  ii.  484  ;  and,  with 
a  more  correct  text,  in  Sehling's  Die  evangelischen  Kirchenordnungen  des 
16ten  Jahrhunderts  (Leipzig),  1902,  i.  i.  697. 


316  THE   DIET   OF    WORMS 

declaring  that,  as  all  true  Christians  were  taught  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  there  was  no  need  either  for  civil  rulers  or 
for  carnal  learning.  It  is  believed  by  many  that  Carlstadt 
shared  these  fancies,  and  it  has  been  said  that  in  his  desire 
to  "  simplify  "  himself,  he  dressed  as  a  peasant  and  worked 
as  a  labourer  (he  had  married)  on  his  father-in-law's  farm. 
It  is  more  probable  that  he  found  himself  unable  to  rule 
the  storm  his  hasty  measures  had  raised,  and  that  he  saw 
many  things  proposed  with  which  he  had  no  sympathy. 

§  12.  Luther  hack  in  Wittenlerg, 

Melanchthon  felt  himself  helpless  in  presence  of  the 
"  tumult,"  declared  that  no  one  save  Luther  himself  could 
quell  the  excitement,  and  eagerly  pressed  his  return.  The 
revolutionary  movement  was  extending  beyond  Wittenberg, 
in  other  towns  in  Electoral  Saxony  such  as  Grimma  and 
Altenberg.  Duke  George  of  Saxony,  the  strenuous  defender 
of  the  old  faith,  had  been  watching  the  proceedings  from 
the  beginning.  As  early  as  Nov.  21st,  1521,  he  had 
written  to  John  Duke  of  Saxony,  the  brother  of  the  Elector, 
warning  him  that,  against  ecclesiastical  usage,  the  Sacrament 
of  the  Supper  was  being  dispensed  in  both  kinds  in  Witten- 
berg; he  had  informed  him  (Dec.  26th)  that  priests  were 
threatened  while  saying  the  Mass;  he  had  brought  the 
"  tumultuous  deeds  "  in  Electoral  Saxony  before  the  Eeichs- 
regiment  in  January,  with  the  result  that  imperial  mandates 
were  sent  to  the  Elector  Frederick  and  to  the  Bishops  of 
Meissen,  Merseburg,  and  Naumburg,  requiring  them  to  take 
measures  to  end  the  disturbances.  The  Elector  was  seriously 
disquieted.  His  anxieties  were  increased  by  a  letter  from 
Duke  George  (Feb.  2nd,  1522),  declaring  that  Carlstadt 
and  Zwilling  were  the  instigators  of  all  the  riotous  proceed- 
ings. He  had  commissioned  one  of  his  councillors,  Hugold 
of  Einsiedel,  to  try  to  put  matters  right ;  but  the  result  had 
been  small.  It  was  probably  in  these  circumstances  that 
he  wrote  his  Instruction  to  Oswald,  a  burgher  of  Eisenach, 
with  the  intention  that  the  contents  should  be  communicated 


LUTHER   BACK    IN   WITTENBERG  317 

to  Luther  in  the  Wartburg.  The  Instruction  may  have  been 
the  reason  why  Luther  suddenly  left  the  asylum  where  he 
had  remained  since  his  appearance  at  Worms  by  the  com- 
mand and  under  the  protection  of  his  prince.^ 

If  this  Instruction  did  finally  determine  him,  it  was 
only  one  of  many  things  urging  Luther  to  leave  his  soli- 
tude. He  cared  little  for  the  influence  of  the  Zwickau 
Prophets,^  estimating  them  at  their  true  value,  but  the 
weakness  of  Melanchthon,  the  destructive  and  dangerous 
impetuosity  of  Carlstadt,  the  spread  of  the  tumult  beyond 
Wittenberg,  the  determination  of  Duke  George  to  make 
use  of  these  outbursts  to  destroy  the  whole  movement  for 
reformation,  and  the  interference  of  the  Reichsregiment 
with  its  mandates,  made  him  feel  that  the  decisive  moment 
had  come  when  he  must  be  again  among  his  own  people. 

He  started  on  his  lonely  journey,  most  of  it  through  an 
enemy's  country,  going  by  Erfurt,  Jena,  Borna,  and  Leipzig. 
He  was  dressed  as  "  Junker  Georg,"  with  beard  on  his 
chin  and  sword  by  his  side.  At  Erfurt  he  had  a  good- 
humoured  discussion  with  a  priest  in  the  inn ;  and  Kessler, 
the  Swiss  student,  tells  how  he  met  a  stranger  sitting  in 
the  parlour  of  the  "  Bear  "  at  Jena  with  his  hand  on  the 
hilt  of  his  sword,  and  reading  a  small  Hebrew  Psalter. 
He  got  to  Wittenberg  on  Friday,  March  7  th ;  spent  that 
afternoon  and  the  next  day  in  discussing  the  situation  with 
his  friends  Amsdorf,  Melanchthon,  and  Jerome  Schurf.^ 

On  Sunday  he  appeared  in  the  pulpit,  and  for  eight 
successive  days  he  preached  to  the  people,  and  the  plague 
was  stayed.  Many  things  in  the  movement  set  agoing  by 
Carlstadt  met  with  liis  approval.  He  had  come  to  believe 
in  the  marriage  of  the  clergy ;  he  disapproved  strongly  of 

^  This  Instruction  will  be  fouDd  in  Enders,  Dr.  Martin  Lidhers  Brief- 
wechsel,  ill.  292-295.  Its  effect  on  Luther's  return  to  "Wittenberg  is  dis- 
cussed at  length  by  von  Uezold  {Zeitschri/tfiir  Kirchengeschichte,  xx.  186  ff.), 
Kawerau  (Lnther's  Eilckkehr,  etc.,  Halle,  1902),  and  by  Barge  [Andreas 
Bodenstein  von  Karlstadt,  Leipzig,  1905,  p.  432 ff.). 

^  See  his  letters  to  Spalatin  in  Enders,  Dr.  Martin  Luthers  Briefwechulf 
Ui.  271,  286. 

•  Johann  Kessler,  Sdbhata  (edited  by  Egli  and  Schoch,  St.  Gall,  1902). 


318  THE    DIET   OF    WORMS 

private  Masses ;  he  had  grave  doubts  on  the  subject  of 
monastic  vows ;  but  he  disapproved  of  the  violence,  of  the 
importance  attached  to  outward  details,  and  of  the  use  of 
force  to  advance  the  Reformation  movement : 

"  The  Word  created  heaven  and  earth  and  all  things ; 
the  same  Word  will  also  create  now,  and  not  we  poor  sinners. 
Summa  siimmarum,  I  will  preach  it,  I  will  talk  about  it,  I 
will  write  about  it,  but  I  will  not  use  force  or  compulsion 
with  anyone ;  for  faith  must  be  of  freewill  and  unconstrained 
and  must  be  accepted  without  compulsion.  To  marry,  to 
do  away  with  images,  to  become  monks  or  nuns,  or  for 
monks  and  nuns  to  leave  their  convents,  to  eat  meat  on 
Friday  or  not  to  eat  it,  and  other  like  things— all  these  are 
open  questions,  and  should  not  be  forbidden,  by  any  man. 
If  T  employ  force,  what  do  I  gain  ?  Changes  in  demeanour, 
outward  shows,  grimaces,  shams,  hypocrisies.  But  whnt 
becomes  of  the  sincerity  of  the  heart,  of  faith,  of  Christian 
love  ?  All  is  wanting  where  these  are  lacking ;  and  for  the 
rest  I  would  not  give  the  stalk  of  a  pear.  What  we  want 
is  the  heart,  and  to  win  that  we  must  preach  the  gospel. 
Then  the  word  will  drop  into  one  heart  to-day,  and  to-morrow 
into  another,  and  so  will  work  that  each  will  forsake  tlie 
Mass." 

He  made  no  personal  references ;  he  blamed  no  in- 
dividuals ;  and  in  the  end  he  was  master  of  the  situation. 

When  he  had  won  back  Wittenberg  he  made  a  tour  of 
those  places  in  Electoral  Saxony  where  the  Wittenberg 
example  had  been  followed.  He  went  to  Zwickau,  to 
Altenberg,  and  to  Grimma — preaching  to  thousands  of 
people,  calming  them,  and  bringing  them  back  to  a  con- 
servative reformation. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

FROM  THE  DIET  OF  WORMS   TO  THE  CLOSE  OF 
THE   PEASANTS'   WAR. 

§  1.   The  continued  spread  of  Lutheran  Teaching. 

The  imperial  edict  issued  against  Luther  at  the  Diet  of 
Worms  could  scarcely  have  been  stronger  than  it  was,^  and 
yet,  like  many  another  edict  of  Emperor  and  Diet,  it 
was  wholly  ineffective.  It  could  only  be  enforced  by  the 
individual  Estates,  who  for  the  most  part  showed  great 
reluctance  to  put  it  into  operation.  It  was  published  in 
the  territories  of  Archduke  Ferdinand  of  Austria,  of  the 
Elector  of  Brandenburg,  of  Duke  George  of  Saxony,  and  of 
the  Dukes  of  Bavaria ;  but  none  of  these  princes,  except 
the  Archduke  and  Duke  George,  seemed  to  care  much  for 
the  old  religion.  In  most  of  the  ecclesiastical  States  the 
authorities  were  afraid  of  riots  following  the  publication, 

*  The  edict  said :  **  In  the  first  place,  we  command  that  all,  particularly 
all  princes,  estates,  and  subjects,  shall  not,  after  the  expiry  of  the  above 
twenty  days,  which  terminate  on  the  14th  of  the  present  month  of  May, 
offer  to  Luther  either  shelter,  food,  or  drink,  or  help  him  in  any  way  with 
words  or  deeds,  secretly  or  openly.  On  the  contrary,  wherever  you  get 
possession  of  him,  you  shall  at  once  put  him  in  prison  and  send  him  to  me, 
or,  at  anyrate,  inform  me  thereof  without  any  delay.  For  that  holy  work 
you  shall  be  recompensed  for  your  trouble  and  expenses.  Likewise  you 
ought,  in  virtue  of  the  holy  constitution  and  ban  of  our  Empire,  to  deal  in 
the  following  way  with  all  the  partisans,  abettors,  and  patrons  of  Luther. 
You  shall  put  them  down,  and  confiscate  their  estates  to  your  own  profit, 
unless  the  said  persons  can  prove  that  they  have  mended  their  ways  and 
asked  for  papal  absolution.  Furthermore,  we  command,  under  the  afore- 
said penalties,  that  nobody  shall  buy,  sell,  read,  keep,  copy,  or  print  any 
of  the  writings  of  Martin  Luther  which  have  been  condemned  by  our  holy 
rather  the  Pope,  whether  in  Latin  or  in  German,  nor  any  other  of  h.'s  wicked 
writings." 


320  THE   peasants'   WAR 

and  did  nothing.  Thus,  in  Bremen,  we  are  told  tbat  ai 
late  as  December  1522  the  people  had  never  seen  the 
edict.  The  cities  treated  it  as  carelessly.  The  authorities 
in  Nlirnberg,  Ulm,  Augsburg,  and  Strassburg  posted  it  up 
publicly  as  an  official  document,  and  took  no  further 
trouble.  In  Strassburg  the  printers  went  on  issuing 
Luther's  books  and  tracts  as  fast  as  their  printing-presses 
could  produce  them ;  and  at  Constance  the  populace 
drove  the  imperial  commissioners  from  the  town  when 
they  came  to  publish  the  edict. 

I  The  action  of  the  newly  constituted  Beichsregiment  was 
as  indecisive.  When  the  disturbances  broke  out  at  Witten- 
berg, under  Carlstadt  and  the  Zwickau  Prophets,  Duke 
George,  by  playing  on  the  fears  of  a  spread  of  Hussitism, 
could  get  mandates  issued  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony  and 
neighbouring  bishops  to  inquire  into  and  crush  the  dis- 
orders; but  after  Luther's  return  and  the  restoration  of 
tranquillity  his  pleadings  were  ineffectual.  It  was  in  vain 
that  he  insisted  that  Luther's  presence  in  Wittenberg  was 
an  insult  to  the  Empire.  He  was  told  that  the  Beichs- 
regiment was  able  to  judge  for  itself  what  were  insults,  and 
that  when  they  saw  them  they  would  punish.  Archduke 
Ferdinand,  the  President,  doubtless  sympathised  with  Duke 
George,  but  he  was  powerless ;  the  Elector  of  Saxony  had 
the  greatest  influence,  and  it  was  always  exerted  on  the 
side  of  Luther. 

f  In  January  1522  a  new  Pope  had  been  chosen,  who 
took  the  title  of  Adrian  vi.  His  election  was  a  triumph 
for  the  party  that  confessed  the  urgent  need  of  reforms, 
and  thought  that  they  ought  to  be  effected  by  the 
hierarchy  and  from  within  the  Church.  Adrian  was  a 
pious  man  according  to  his  lights,  one  who  felt  deeply  the 
corruption  which  was  degrading  the  Church.  He  believed 
that  the  revolt  of  Luther  was  a  punishment  sent  by  God 
for  the  sins  of  the  generation.  He  had  been  the  tutor  of 
Charles  v.,  and  ascended  the  papal  throne  with  the  deter- 
mmation  to  reform  corruptions,  and  to  begin  his  reforms 
by  attacking  the  source  of  all — the  Eoman  Curia.     But  he 


THE   DIET   OF    1623  821 

was  a  Dominican  monk,  and  had  all  the  Dominican  ideas 
about  the  need  of  maintaining  mediaeval  theology  intact, 
and  about  the  strict  maintenance  of  ecclesiastical  discipline 
He  was  as  ignorant  as  his  predecessor  of  the  state  of 
matters  in  Germany,  and  regarded  Luther  as  another 
Mahomet,  who  was  seducing  men  from  the  higher  Chris- 
tian life  by  pandering  to  their  fleshly  appetites. 

The  Reichsregiment  met  with  the  Diet  at  Numberg  in 
1522—1523,  and  to  this  Diet  the  Pope  sent,  as  nuncio, 
Francesco  Chieregati,  Bishop  of  Terramo,  in  the  kingdom 
of  Naples.  The  nuncio  was  given  lengthy  instructions, 
which  set  forth  the  Pope's  opinion  of  the  corruptions  in 
the  Church  and  his  intention  to  cure  them,  but  which 
demanded  the  delivery  of  Luther  into  the  hands  of  the 
Koman  Curia,  and  the  punishment  of  priests,  monks,  and 
nuns  who  had  broken  their  vows  of  celibacy.^  Chieregati 
was  no  sooner  in  Germany  than  he  understood  that  it 
would  be  impossible  for  him  to  get  the  Pope's  demand 
carried  out,  and  he  informed  his  master  of  the  state  of 
matters.  When  he  met  the  Diet  and  presented  the  papal 
requests,  he  was  practically  answered  that  Germany  had 
grievances  against  Eome,  and  that  they  would  need  to  be 
set  right  ere  the  Curia  could  expect  to  get  its  behests 
fulfilled.  They  intimated  that  since  the  Pope  had  admitted 
the  corruptions  in  the  Church,  it  was  scarcely  to  be 
expected  that  they  should  blame  Luther  for  having  pointed 
them  out.  They  presented  the  nuncio  with  a  list  of  one 
hundred  German  grievances  against  the  Eoman  Curia ;  ^ 
and  suggested  that  the  most  convenient  way  of  settling 
them  would  be  for  the  Pope  to  make  over  immediately, 
for  the  public  use  of  Germany,  the  German  annates?  and 
that  a  German  Council  should  be  held  on  German  soil,  and 
within  one  of  the  larger  German  cities. 

*  The  Pope's  instructions  to  his  nuncio  will  be  found  in  Wrede,  DeiUsefu 
Reich  stagsakten  unter  Kaiser  Karl  F.,  iii.  393  ff. 

2  Compare  Gebhardt,  Die  Gravamina  der  DeuUchen  Naticm,  2nd  ed., 
Breslau,  1896. 

*  The  animtea  were  the  first  year's  stipend  of  an  ecclesiastical  benefice, 
usually  reckoned  at  a  fixed  rate. 


322  THE   PEASANTS    WAR 

j  The  practical  result  of  this  fencing  at  the  Diet  ol 
1522,  repeated  in  1523,  was  that  the  progress  of  the 
Lutheran  movement  was  not  checked.  How  deeply  the 
people  of  Germany  had  drunk  in  the  teaching  of  Luther 
may  be  learnt  from  the  letters  of  the  nuncio  to  the  Curia, 
and  from  those  of  the  Archduke  Ferdinand  to  the  Emperor. 
Both  use  the  same  expression,  that  "  among  a  thousand 
men  scarcely  one  could  be  found  untainted  by  Lutheran 
teaching.** 

Adrian  vi.  died  suddenly  after   a  few  months'  reign, 

j  and  the  next  Pope,  Clement  viL,  a  Medici  and  completely 

\  under  the  influence  of  the  French  king,  belonged  to  the 

;  old  unreforming  party,  whose  only  desire  was  to  maintain 

'  all  the   corrupting   privileges   of   the   Koman  Curia.     He 

selected   and    sent    to    Germany,   as    his  nuncio,   Lorenzo 

Gampeggio,  one  of  the  ablest  of  Italian  diplomatists,  to 

negotiate  with  the  Reichsregiment  and  the  Diet  which  met 

at  Speyer  in  1524. 

Campeggio,  like  his  predecessor,  found  that  the  German 
Nation  was  determinedly  hostile  to  Eome.  When  he  made 
his  official  entry  into  Augsburg,  and  raised  his  hands  to 
give  the  usual  benediction  to  the  crowds  of  people,  they 
received  the  blessing  with  open  derision.  He  was  so  im- 
pressed with  their  attitude,  that  when  he  reached  Nurn- 
oerg  he  doffed  his  official  robes  and  entered  the  town  as 
quietly  as  possible ;  indeed,  he  received  a  message  from  the 
authorities  asking  him  "  to  avoid  making  the  sign  of  the 
cross,  or  using  the  benediction,  seeing  how  matters  then 
stood."  The  presence  of  the  Legate  seemed  to  increase  the 
anti-papal  zeal  of  the  people.  The  Pope  was  openly  spoken 
of  as  Antichrist.  Planitz,  the  energetic  commissary  of  the 
Elector  of  Saxony,  reckoned  that  nearly  four  thousand 
people  in  the  city  partook  of  the  Sacrament  of  the  Supper 
in  both  kinds,  and  informs  us  that  among  them  were 
members  of  the  Reichsregiment,  and  Isabella,  Queen  of 
Sweden,  the  sister  of  the  Emperor. 

,        Yet  the  experienced  Italian  diplomatist  thought  that 
he  could  discern  signs  more  favourable  to  his  master  than 


THE   LEGATE   CAMPEGGIO  823 

^the  previous  Diet  had  exhibited  The  Reichsregimentf 
which  had  hitherto  shielded  the  Lutheran  movement,  had 
lost  the  confidence  of  many  classes  of  people,  and  was 
tottering  to  its  fall.  It  had  showed  itself  unable  to  enforce 
the  Lands-Peace.  It  was  the  princes  who  had  defeated  the 
rising  of  the  Free  Nobles  under  Franz  von  Sickingen ;  it 
was  the  Swabian  League,  an  association  always  devoted  to 
the  House  of  Austria,  that  had  crushed  the  Franconian 
robber  nobles ;  and  both  princes  and  League  were  irritated 
at  the  attempts  of  the  Beichsregiment,  which  had  endeavoured 
to  rob  them  of  the  fruits  of  their  successes.  The  cities  had 
been  made  to  bear  all  the  taxation  needed  to  support  the 
central  government,  and  the  system  of  monopolies  arising 
from  combinations  among  the  great  commercial  houses  had 
been  threatened.  The  cities  and  the  capitalists  had  made 
a  secret  agreement  with  the  Emperor,  and  von  Hannart 
had  been  sent  by  the  Emperor  from  Spain  to  the  Diet  of 
1524  to  work  along  with  the  towns  for  the  overthrow  of 
the  central  government.  The  Diet  itself  had  passed  a  vote 
of  no  confidence  in  the  government.  In  these  troubled 
waters  a  crafty  fisher  might  win  some  success. 
]  His  success  was  more  apparent  than  real.  The  Diet  of 
1524  did  not  absolutely  refuse  to  enforce  the  Edict  of 
Worms  against  Luther  and  his  followers ;  they  promised 
to  execute  it  "  as  well  as  they  were  able,  and  as  far  as  was 
possible,"  and  the  cities  had  made  it  plain  that  the  enforce- 
ment was  impossible.  They  renewed  their  demand  for  a 
General  Council  to  meet  in  a  suitable  German  town  to 
settle  the  affairs  of  the  Church  in  Germany,  and  again 
declared  that  meanwhile  nothing  should  be  preached 
contrary  to  the  Word  of  God  and  the  Holy  Gospel.  They 
went  further,  and  practically  resolved  that  a  National 
Council,  to  deliberate  on  the  condition  of  the  Church  in 
Germany,  should  meet  at  Speyer  in  November  and  make 
an  interim  settlement  of  its  ecclesiastical  affairs,  to  last 
until  the  meeting  of  a  General  Council.  It  is  true  that, 
owing  to  the  exertions  of  the  nuncio  and  of  von  Hannart, 
the  phrase  National  Synod  was  omitted,  and  the  meeting 


324  THE  peasants'  war 

was  to  be  one  of  the  Estates  of  Germany  at  which  th« 
councillors  and  learned  divines  of  the  various  princes  were 
to  formulate  all  the  disputed  points,  and  to  consider  anew 
the  grievances  of  the  German  nation  against  the  Papacy ; 
but  neither  the  nuncio  nor  von  Hannart  deceived  them- 
selves as  to  the  real  meaning  of  the  resolution.  "  It  will 
be  a  National  Council  for  Germany,"  said  Hannart  in  his 
report.  Nothing  could  be  more  alarming  to  the  Pope 
There  was  always  a  possibility  of  managing  a  General 
Council ;  but  a  German  National  Synod,  including  a  large 
number  of  lay  representatives,  meeting  in  a  German  town, 
foreshadowed  an  independent  National  German  Church 
which  would  insist  on  separation  from  the  Koman  See. 
The  Pope  wrote  to  Henry  viii.  of  England  asking  him  to 
harass  the  German  merchants;  he  induced  the  Emperor 
to  forbid  the  proposed  meeting  of  the  German  States; 
and,  what  was  more  important,  he  instructed  his  nuncio 
to  take  steps  secretly  to  form  a  league  of  German  princes 
who  were  still  favourable  to  maintaining  the  mediaeval 
Church  with  its  doctrines,  ceremonies,  and  usages.  This 
inaugurated  the  religious  divisions  of  Germany. 

§  2.   The  heginnings  of  Division  in  Germany, 

I  The  Diet  of  Speyer  (1524)  may  perhaps  be  taken  as 
'the  beginning  of  the  separation  of  Germany  into  two 
opposite  camps  of  Protestant  and  Eoman  Catholic,  although 
;■  the  real  parting  of  the  ways  actually  occurred  after  the 
/  Peasants'  War.  The  overthrow,  or  at  least  discrediting 
of  the  Eeichsregiment,  placed  the  management  of  everything, 
including  the  settlement  of  the  religious  question,  in  the 
hands  of  the  princes,  none  of  whom,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  cared  much  for  the  idea  of 
nationality;  while  some  of  them,  however  anxious  they 
were,  or  once  had  been,  for  ecclesiastical  reforms,  were 
genuinely  afraid  of  the  "  tumult "  which  they  believed 
might  lurk  behind  any  conspicuous  changes  in  religious 
usages.     Duke  George  of  Saxony,  who  was  keenly  alive  to 


DIVISIONS   IN   GERMANY  825 

the  corruptions  in  the  Church,  dreaded  above  all  things  the 
beginnings  of  a  Hussite  movement  in  Germany.  He  knew 
that  an  assiduous,  penetrating,  secret  Hussite,  or  rather 
Taborite  propaganda  had  been  going  on  in  Germany  for 
long.  As  early  as  the  Leipzig  Disputation  (1519),  when 
John  Eck  had  skilfully  forced  Luther  into  the  avowal  that 
he  approved  of  some  things  in  the  Hussite  revolt,  Duke 
George  was  seen  to  put  his  arms  akimbo,  to  wag  his  long 
beard,  and  was  heard  to  ejaculate,  "  God  help  us !  The 
plague  !  "  A  fear  of  Hussite  revolution  displays  itself  in  his 
correspondence,  and  very  notably  in  his  letters  to  Duke 
John  of  Saxony  and  to  the  Elector  about  the  disturbances 
in  Wittenberg.  It  was  a  triumph  for  the  Eoman  Curia 
when  its  partisans,  from  Eck  onwards,  were  able  to  fix  the 
stigma  of  Hussitism  on  the  Lutheran  movement ;  and  the 
career  of  the  Zwickau  Prophets,  notwithstanding  their  sup- 
pression by  Luther,  was,  to  many,  an  indication  of  what 
might  lie  beliind  the  new  preaching.  When  the  Peasants' 
War  came  in  1525,  many  of  the  earlier  sympathisers  with 
Luther  saw  in  it  an  indication  of  the  dangers  into  which 
they  fancied  that  Luther  was  leading  Germany.  It  is  also 
to  be  noticed  that  many  of  the  Humanists  now  began  to 
desert  the  Lutheran  cause ;  his  Augustinian  theology  made 
them  think  that  he  was  bent  on  creating  a  new  Scholastic 
which  seemed  to  them  almost  as  bad  as  the  old,  which  they 
had  been  delighted  to  see  him  attack. 

The  Eoman  Curia  was  quick  to  take  advantage  of  all 
these  alarms.  Its  efforts  were  so  successful,  that  it  was 
soon  able  to  create  a  Eoman  Catholic  Party  among  the 
South  German  princes,  and  to  secure  its  steadfastness  by  pro- 
mising a  few  concessions,  and  by  permitting  the  authorities 
to  retain  for  the  secular  uses  of  their  States  about  one-fifth 
of  the  ecclesiastical  revenues  in  each  State.  The  leading 
States  in  this  Eoman  Catholic  federation  were  Austria  and 
Bavaria,  and  so  long  as  Duke  George  lived,  Ducal  Saxony 
in  middle  Germany.  This  naturally  called  forth  a  dis- 
tinctly Lutheran  party,  no  longer  national,  which  included 
the  Elector  of  Saxony,  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  the  Mar- 


326  THE   PEASANTS     WAR 

graf  of  Brandenburg,  his  brother  Albert,  and  many  others. 
Albert  was  at  the  head  of  the  Teutonic  Order  in  East 
Prussia.  He  secularised  his  semi-ecclesiastical  principality, 
became  the  first  Duke  of  Prussia,  and  his  State  from  the 
beginning  adopted  the  evangelical  faith. 
I  It  was  not  until  the  Peasants*  War  was  over  that  this 
division  was  clearly  manifested.  The  Peformation  had 
spread  in  simple  natural  fashion,  without  any  attempt  at 
concerted  action,  or  any  design  to  impose  a  new  and 
uniform  order  of  public  worship,  or  to  make  changes  in 
ecclesiastical  government.  Luther  himself  was  not  without 
hopes  that  the  great  ecclesiastical  principalities  might 
become  secular  lordships,  that  the  bishops  would  assume 
the  lead  in  ecclesiastical  reform,  and  that  there  would  be 
a  great  National  Church  in  Germany,  with  little  external 
change — enough  only  to  permit  the  evangelical  preaching 
and  teaching.  It  is  true  that  the  Emperor  had  shown 
clearly  his  position  by  sending  martyrs  to  the  stake  in  the 
Netherlands,  and  that  symptoms  of  division  had  begun  to 
manifest  themselves  during  1524,  as  we  have  seen.  Still 
these  things  did  not  prevent  such  an  experienced  statesman 
as  the  Elector  of  Saxony  from  confidently  expecting  a 
peaceful  and,  so  far  as  Germany  was  concerned,  a 
unanimous  and  hearty  solution  of  the  religious  difficulties. 
The  storm  burst  suddenly  which  was  to  shatter  these 
optimistic  expectations,  and  to  change  fundamentally  the 
whole  course  of  the  Lutheran  Eeformation.  This  was  the 
Peasants'  War. 

§  3.   The  Peasants*  War} 

From  one  point  of  view  this  insurrection  was  simply 
the  last,  the  most  extensive,  and  the  most  disastrous  of 

*  Sources  :  Baumann,  Quellen  zur  Geschichte  des  Bauemkrieges  in 
Oher-Schwabeii  (Stuttgart,  1877) ;  Die  Zwolf  Artikel  der  oberschwdbischen 
Bauem  (Kempten,  1896) ;  Akten  zur  Geschichte  des  Bauemkrieges  aus  Ober- 
Schwaben  (Freiburg,  1881) ;  Beger,  Zur  Geschichte  des  Bauemkrieges  nach 
Urkunden  zu  Karlsruhe  (in  Forschungen  zur  deutschen  Geschichte,  vols, 
rxi.-xxii.,  Gottingen,  1862) ;  Ryhiner,  Chronik  des  Bauemkrieges  [Basler 
Chronikent  vi.,  1902);   Waldau,  MaUrialien  zur  Geschichte  des  Bauern* 


THE   PEASANTS    WAR  327 

those  revolts  which,  we  have  already  seen,  had  been 
almost  chronic  in  Germany  during  the  later  decades  of  the 
fifteenth  and  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
All  the  social  and  economic  causes  which  produced  them  ^ 
were  increasingly  active  in  1524-1525.  It  is  easy  to 
show,  as  many  Lutheran  Church  historians  have  done  with 
elaborate  care,  that  the  Eeformation  under  Luther  had 
nothing  in  common  with  the  sudden  and  unexpected  revolt, 
— as  easy  as  to  prove  that  there  was  little  in  common 
between  the  "  Spiritual  Poverty  "  of  Francis  of  Assisi  and 
the  vulgar  communism  of  the  Brethren  and  Sisters  of  the 
Free  Spirit,  between  the  doctrines  of  Wiclif  and  the 
gigantic  labour  strike  headed  by  Wat  Tyler  and  Priest 
Ball,  between  the  teaching  of  Huss  and  the  extreme  Taborite 
fanatics.  But  the  fact  remains  that  the  voice  of  Luther 
awoke  echoes  whereof  he  never  dreamt,  and  that  its  effects 
cannot  be  measured  by  some  changes  in  doctrine,  or  by  a 
reformation  in  ecclesiastical  organisation.  The  times  of 
the  Eeformation  were  ripe  for  revolution,  and  the  words 
of  the  bold  preacher,  coming  when  all  men  were  restless 
and  most  men  were  oppressed,  appealing  especially  to  those 
who  felt  the  burden  heavy  and  the  yoke  galling,  were 
followed  by  far-resounding  reverberations.  Besides,  Luther's 
message  was  democratic.  It  destroyed  the  aristocracy  of 
the  saints,  it  levelled  the  barriers  between  the  layman  and 
the  priest,  it  taught  the  equality  of  all  men  before  God, 
and  the  right  of  every  man  of  faith  to  stand  in  God's 
presence  whatever  be  his  rank  and  condition  of  life.  He 
had  not  confined  himself  to  preaching  a  new  theology. 
His  message  was  eminently  practical     In  his  Appeal  to 

krieges  (Chemuitz,  1791-1794) ;  Vogt,  Die  Korrespondenz  des  Schwabisehen 
Bundes-HaujJtmanns,  152^-1527  (Augsburg,  1879-1883). 

Later  Books  :  Zimmermann,  Allgemeine  Geschichte  des  grossen  Bauem- 
krieges,  3  vols.  (Stuttgart,  1856) ;  E.  Belfort  Bax,  The  Peasants'  War  in 
Germany  (London,  1899) ;  Kautsky,  Communism  in  Central  Europe  in  the 
time  of  the  Reformation  (London,  1897) ;  Stern,  Die  Socialisten  der  Reforma- 
tionszeit  (Berlin,  1883).  The  literature  on  the  Peasants'  War  it  very 
extensive. 

*  Compare  above,  p.  106. 


328  THE  peasants'  war 

the  Nobility  of  the  German  Nation,  Luther  had  voiced  all 
the  grievances  of  Germany,  had  touched  upon  almost  all 
the  open  sores  of  the  time,  and  had  foretold  disasters  not 
very  far  off. 

Nor  must  it  he  forgotten  that  no  great  leader  ever 
flung  about  wild  words  in  such  a  reckless  way.  Luther  had 
the  gift  of  strong  smiting  phrases,  of  words  which  seemed 
to  cleave  to  the  very  heart  of  things,  of  images  which  lit 
up  a  subject  with  the  vividness  of  a  flash  of  lightning 
He  launched  tracts  and  pamphlets  from  the  press  about 
almost  everything, — written  for  the  most  part  on  the  spur 
of  the  moment,  and  when  the  fire  burned.  His  words  fell 
into  souls  full  of  the  fermenting  passions  of  the  times. 
They  drank  in  with  eagerness  the  thoughts  that  all  men 
were  equal  before  God,  and  that  there  are  divine  com- 
mands about  the  brotherhood  of  mankind  of  more 
importance  than  all  human  legislation.  They  refused  to 
believe  that  such  golden  ideas  belonged  to  the  realm  of 
spiritual  life  alone,  or  that  the  only  prescriptions  which 
denied  the  rights  of  the  common  man  were  the  decrees 
of  the  Eoman  Curia.  The  successful  revolts  of  the  Swiss 
peasants,  the  wonderful  victories  of  Zisca,  the  people's 
leader,  in  the  near  Bohemian  lands,  were  illustrations,  they 
thought,  of  how  Luther's  sledge-hammer  words  could  be 
translated  into  corresponding  deeds. 

Other  teachings  besides  Luther's  were  listened  to. 
Many  of  the  Humanists,  professed  disciples  of  Plato, 
expounded  to  friends  or  in  their  class-rooms  the  com- 
munistic dreams  of  the  Eepuhlic,  and  published  Utopias 
like  the  brilliant  sketch  of  the  ideal  commonwealth  which 
came  from  the  pen  of  Thomas  More.  These  speculations 
"of  the  Chair"  were  listened  to  by  the  "wandering 
students,"  and  were  retailed,  with  forcible  illustrations,  in 
a  way  undreamt  of  by  their  scholarly  authors,  to  audiences 
of  artisans  and  peasants  who  were  more  than  ready  to  give 
them  unexpected  applications.^ 

*  Lindsay,  Luther  and  the  German  Reformation  (Edinburgli,  1900),  169  ff,  • 
Stern,  Die  Sodalisten  der  Reformationszeit,  Berlin,  1883. 


THE    PEASANTS*    WAR  329 

The  influence  of  popular  astrology  must  not  be 
forgotten ;  for  the  astrologists  were  powerful  among  all 
classes  of  society,  in  the  palaces  of  the  princes,  in  the 
houses  of  the  burghers,  and  at  the  peasant  market 
gatherings  and  church  ales.  In  these  days  they  were 
busy  pointing  out  heavenly  portents,  and  foretelling 
calamities  and  popular  risings.^ 

The  missionaries  of  the  movement  belonged  to  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  men — poor  priests  sympathising  with 
the  grievances  of  their  parishioners ;  wandering  monks 
who  had  deserted  their  convents,  especially  those  belonging 
to  the  Franciscan  Order ;  poor  students  on  their  way  from 
University  to  University;  artisans,  travelling  in  German 
fashion  from  one  centre  of  their  trade  to  another.  They 
found  their  audiences  on  the  village  greens  under  the  lime 
trees,  or  in  the  public-houses  in  the  lower  parts  of  the 
towns.  They  talked  the  rude  language  of  the  people,  and 
garnished  their  discourse  with  many  a  scriptural  quotation. 
They  read  to  excited  audiences  small  pamphlets  and 
broadsides,  printed  in  thick  letters  on  coarse  paper,  which 
discussed  the  burning  questions  of  the  day. 

The  revolt  began  unexpectedly,  and  without  any  pre- 
concerted preparation  or  formulation  of  demands,  in  June 
1524,  when  a  thousand  peasants  belonging  to  the  estate 
of  Count  Sigismund  of  Lupfen  rose  in  rebellion  against 
their  lord  at  Stiihlingen,  a  few  miles  to  the  north-west  of 
Schaffhausen,  and  put  themselves  under  the  leadership  of 
Hans  Miiller,  an  old  landsknecht.  Mtiller  led  his  peasants, 
one  of  them  carrying  a  flag  blazoned  with  the  imperial 
colours  of  red,  black,  and  yellow,  to  the  little  town  of 
Waldshut,  about  half-way  between  Schaffliausen  and  Basel. 
The  people  of  the  town  fraternised  with  the  peasants,  and 
the  formidable  "  Evangelical  Brotherhood "  was  either 
formed  then  or  the  roots  of  it  were  planted.  The  news 
spread  fast,  east  and  west.  The  peasants  of  the  districts 
round  about  the  Lake  of  Constance — in  the  Allgau,  the 

*  Friedrich,  Astrologie  und  Heformation,  oder  die  Astrologen  als  Prediger 

der  Reformation  und  Urheher  des  Bauemkrieges,  Miinchen,  1864. 


330  THE   PEASANTS*   WAR 

Klettgau,  the  TTogan,  and  Villingen — rose  in  rebellion. 
The  revolt  spread  northwards  into  Lower  Swabia,  and  the 
peasants  of  Leiphen,  led  by  Jacob  Wehe,  were  joined  by 
some  of  the  troops  of  Truchsess,  the  general  of  the  Swabian 
League.  The  peasants  of  Salzburg,  Styria,  and  the  Tyrol 
rose.  These  three  eastern  risings  had  most  staying  power 
in  them.  The  Salzburg  peasants  besieged  the  Cardinal 
Archbishop  in  his  castle ;  they  were  not  reduced  till  the 
spring  of  1526,  and  only  after  having  extorted  conces- 
sions from  their  over-lords.  The  Tyrolese  peasants,  under 
their  wise  leader,  Michael  Gaismeyer,  shut  up  Archduke 
Ferdinand  in  Innsbruck,  and  in  the  end  gained  substantial 
concessions.  The  rising  in  Styria  was  a  very  strong  one ; 
it  lasted  till  1526,  and  was  eventually  put  down  by  bring- 
ing Bohemian  troops  into  the  country.  From  Swabia  the 
flames  of  insurrection  spread  into  Franconia,  where  a  por- 
tion of  the  insurgents  were  led  by  an  escaped  criminal,  the 
notorious  Jaklein  Kohrbach.  It  was  this  band  which  per- 
petrated the  wanton  massacre  of  Weinsberg,  the  one  out- 
standing atrocity  of  the  insurrection.  The  band  and  the 
deed  were  repudiated  by  the  rest  of  the  insurgents.  Thomas 
Mtinzer,  who,  banished  from  Zwickau  and  then  from 
Alstedt,  had  settled  in  Miihlhausen,  his  heart  aflame  with 
the  wrongs  of  the  commonalty,  preached  insurrection  to  the 
peasants  in  Thtiringen.     He  issued  flery  proclamations : 

"  Arise !  Fight  the  battle  of  the  Lord  I  On !  On !  On  I 
The  wicked  tremble  when  they  hear  of  you.  On !  On !  On  I 
Be  pitiless  although  Esau  gives  you  fair  words  (Gen.  xxxiii.). 
Heed  not  the  groans  of  the  godless ;  they  will  beg,  weep, 
and  entreat  you  for  pity  like  children.  Show  them  no 
mercy,  as  God  commanded  to  Moses  (Deut.  vii.),  and  as  He 
has  revealed  the  same  to  us.  Eouse  up  the  towns  and  the 
villages ;  above  all,  rouse  the  miners.  ...  On !  On !  On  I 
while  the  fire  is  burning  let  not  the  blood  cool  on  your 
swords !  Smite  pinke-pank  on  the  anvil  of  Nimrod  !  Over- 
turn their  towers  to  the  foundation;  while  one  of  th3m 
lives  you  will  not  be  free'  from  the  fear  of  man.  While 
they  reign  over  you  it  is  of  no  use  to  speak  of  the  fear  of 
God.     On !  while  it  is  day !     God  is  with  you." 


THE   TWELVE   ARTICLES  381 

The  words  were  meant  to  rouse  the  miuers  of  Mansfeld. 
They  failed  in  their  original  intention,  bnt  they  sent  bands 
of  armed  insurgents  tlirongli  Tbiiringen  and  the  Harz,  and 
within  fourteen  days  about  forty  convents  and  monasteries 
were  destroyed,  and  the  inmates  (many  of  them  poor 
women  with  no  homes  to  return  to)  were  sent  adrift. 

The  revolt  spread  like  a  conflagration,  one  province 
catching  fire  from  another,  until  in  the  early  spring 
months  of  1525  almost  all  Germany  was  in  uproar.  The 
only  districts  which  escaped  were  Bavaria  in  the  south, 
Hesse,  and  the  north  and  north-east  provinces.  The  insur- 
gents were  not  peasants  only.  The  poorer  population  of 
many  of  the  towns  fraternised  with  the  insurgents,  and  com- 
pelled the  civic  authorities  to  admit  them  within  their  walls. 

§  4.   The  Twelve  Articles, 

Statements  of  grievances  were  published  which,  natur- 
ally, bore  a  strong  resemblance  to  those  issued  in  the 
earlier  social  uprisings.  The  countrymen  complained  of 
the  continuous  appropriation  of  the  woodlands  by  the  pro- 
prietors, and  that  they  were  not  allowed  to  fish  in  the 
streams  or  to  kill  game  in  their  fields.  They  denounced 
the  proprietors'  practice  of  compelling  his  peasants  to  do  all 
manner  of  unstipulated  service  for  him  without  payment 
— to  repair  his  roads,  to  assist  at  his  hunts,  to  draw  his 
fish-ponds.  They  said  that  their  crops  were  ruined  by 
game  which  they  were  not  allowed  to  kill,  and  by  hunters 
in  pursuit  of  game;  that  the  landlord  led  his  streams 
across  their  meadow  land,  and  deprived  them  of  water  for 
irrigation.  They  protested  against  arbitrary  punishments, 
unknown  to  the  old  consuetudinary  village  law-courts 
{Haingerichte). 

}        They  formulated  their  demands  for  justice  in  various 

'  series  of  articles,  all  of  which  had  common  features,  but 

contained  some  striking  differences.     Some  dwelt  more  on 

;  the  grievances  of  the  peasants,  others  voiced  the  demands 

of  the  working  classes  of  the  towns,  others  again  contained 


332  THE  peasants'  war 

traces  of  the  political  aspirations  of  the  more  educated 
leaders  of  the  movement.  Almost  all  protest  that  thej 
ask  for  nothing  contrary  to  the  requirements  of  just 
authority,  wliether  civil  or  ecclesiastical,  nor  to  the  gospel 
of  Christ.  The  peasants  declared  that  each  village  com- 
munity should  be  at  liberty  to  choose  its  own  pastor, 
and  to  dismiss  him  if  he  proved  to  be  unsatisfactory , 
that  while  they  were  willing  to  pay  the  great  tithes 
(i.e.  a  tenth  of  the  produce  of  the  crops),  the  lesser  tithes 
(i.e.  a  tenth  of  the  eggs,  lambs,  foals,  etc.)  should  no 
longer  be  exacted;  that  these  great  tithes  should  be 
reserved  to  pay  the  village  priest's  stipend,  and  that 
what  remained  over  should  go  to  support  the  poor ;  that, 
since  God  had  made  all  men  free,  serfdom  should  be 
abolished ;  and  that,  while  they  were  willing  to  obey  lawful 
authority,  peasants  ought  not  to  be  called  on  to  submit 
to  the  arbitrary  commands  of  their  landlords.  They 
insisted  that  they  had  a  right  to  fish  in  the  streams  (not 
in  fish-ponds),  to  kill  game  and  wild  birds,  for  these  were 
public  property.  They  demanded  that  the  woodlands, 
meadows,  and  ploughlands  which  had  once  belonged  to 
the  village  community,  but  which  had  been  appropriated 
by  the  landlords,  should  be  restored.  They  insisted  that 
arbitrary  services  of  every  kind  should  be  abolished,  and 
that  whatever  services,  beyond  the  old  feudal  dues,  were 
demanded,  should  be  paid  for  in  wages.  They  called  for 
the  abolition  of  the  usage  whereby  the  landlord  was  per- 
mitted, in  the  name  of  death -duty,  to  seize  on  the  most 
valuable  chattel  of  the  deceased  tenant ;  and  for  the  crea- 
tion of  impartial  courts  of  justice  in  the  country  districts. 
They  concluded  by  asking  that  all  their  demands  should 
be  tested  by  the  word  of  God,  and  that  if  any  of  them 
should  be  found  to  be  opposed  to  its  teaching,  it  should  be 
rejected.^ 

The  townspeople  asked  that  all  class  privileges  should 
be  abolished  in  civic  and  ecclesiastical  appointments ;  that 

*Cf.  "The  Twelve  Peasant  Articles"  in  Emil  Refch,  Select  Documents 
illiutrating  Mediceval  aiid  Modem  Historyt  p.  212. 


THE   TWELVE   ARTICLES  333 

the  administration  of  justice  in  the  town's  courts  should 
be  improved ;  that  the  local  taxation  should  be  readjusted ; 
that  all  the  inhabitants  should  be  permitted  to  vote  for 
the  election  of  the  councillors ;  and  that  better  provision 
should  be  made  for  the  care  of  the  poor.  Some  of  the 
more  ambitious  manifestoes  contained  demands  for  a 
tliorough  reconstruction  of  the  entire  administration  of  the 
Empire,  on  a  scheme  which  involved  the  overthrow  of  all 
feudal  courts  of  justice,  and  contemplated  a  series  of  im- 
perial judicatories,  rising  from  revived  Communal  Courts 
to  a  central  Imperial  Court  of  Appeal  for  the  whole 
Empire.  Some  manifestoes  demanded  a  unification  of  the 
coinage,  weights,  and  measures  throughout  the  Empire ;  a 
confiscation  of  ecclesiastical  endowments  for  the  purpose 
of  lessening  taxation,  and  for  the  redemption  of  feudal 
dues ;  a  uniform  rate  of  taxes  and  customs  duties ;  re- 
straint to  be  placed  on  the  operations  of  the  great  capital- 
ists ;  the  regulation  of  commerce  and  trade  by  law ;  and 
the  admission  of  representatives  from  all  classes  in  the 
commimity  into  the  public  administration.  In  every  case 
the  Emperor  was  regarded  as  the  Lord  Paramount.  There 
were  also  declarations  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people, 
made  in  such  a  way  as  to  suggest  that  the  writings  of 
Marsilius  of  Padua  had  been  studied  by  some  of  the  leaders 
among  the  insurgents.  The  most  famous  of  all  these 
declarations  was  the  Twelve  Articles.  The  document 
was  adopted  by  delegates  from  several  of  the  insurrec- 
tionary bands,  which  met  at  Memmingen  in  Upper  Swabia, 
to  unite  upon  a  common  basis  of  action.  If  not  actually 
drafted  by  Schappeler,  a  friend  of  Zwingli,  the  articles 
were  probably  inspired  by  him.  These  Twelve  Articles 
gave  something  like  unity  to  the  movement ;  although  it 
must  be  remembered  that  documents  bearing  the  title  do 
not  always  agree.  The  main  thought  with  the  peasant 
was  to  secure  a  fair  share  of  the  land,  security  of  tenure, 
and  diminution  of  feudal  servitudes ;  and  the  idea  of  the 
artisan  was  to  obtain  full  civic  privileges  and  an  adequate 
representation  of  his  class  on  the  city  council 


334  THE  peasants'  war 

§  6.   The  Suppression  of  the  Eevolt 

During  the  earlier  months  of  1525  the  rising  carried 
everything  before  it.  Many  of  the  smaller  towns  made 
common  cause  with  the  peasants;  indeed,  it  was  feared 
that  all  the  towns  of  Swabia  might  unite  in  supporting 
the  movement.  Prominent  nobles  were  forced  to  join  the 
"  Evangelical  Brotherhood  "  which  had  been  formally  con- 
stituted at  Memmingen  (March  7th).  Princes,  like  the 
Cardinal  Elector  of  Mainz  and  the  Bishop  of  Wiirzburg, 
had  to  come  to  terms  with  the  insurgents.  Germany  had 
been  denuded  of  soldiers,  drafted  to  take  part  in  the 
Italian  wars  of  Charles  v.  The  ruling  powers  engaged 
the  insurgents  in  negotiations  simply  for  the  purpose  of 
gaining  time,  as  was  afterwards  seen.  But  the  rising  had 
no  solidity  in  it,  nor  did  it  produce,  save  in  the  Tyrol,  any 
leader  capable  of  effectually  controlling  his  followers  and 
of  giving  practical  result  to  their  efforts.  The  insurgents 
became  demoralised  after  their  first  successes,  and  the 
whole  movement  had  begun  to  show  signs  of  dissolution 
before  the  princes  had  recovered  from  their  terror.  Philip 
of  Hesse  aided  the  Elector  of  Saxony  (John,  for  Frederick 
had  died  during  the  insurrection)  to  crush  Mtinzer  at 
Frankenhausen  (May  15th,  1525),  the  town  of  Miihl- 
hausen  was  taken,  and  deprived  of  its  privileges  as  an 
imperial  city,  and  the  revolt  was  crushed  in  North 
Germany. 

George  Truchsess,  the  general  of  the  Swabian  League, 
his  army  strengthened  by  mercenaries  returning  to  Ger- 
many after  the  battle  of  Pavia,  mastered  the  bands  in 
Swabia  and  in  Franconia.  The  Elsass  revolt  was  sup- 
jpressed  with  great  ferocity  by  Duke  Anthony  of  Lorraine. 
|None  of  the  German  princes  showed  any  consideration  or 
Imercy  to  their  revolting  subjects  save  the  old  Elector 
Frederick  and  Philip  of  Hesse.  The  former,  on  his  death- 
bed, besought  his  brother  to  deal  leniently  with  the 
misguided  people ;  Philip's  peasantry  had  fewer  matters 
to   complain   of    than   had  those   of  any  other   province, 


LUTHER    AND    THE    PEASANTS  335 

the  Landgrave  discussed  their  grievances  with  them,  and 
made  concessions  which  effectually  prevented  any  revolt. 
Everywhere  else,  save  in  the  Tyrol,  the  revolt  was  crushed 
with  merciless  severity,  and  between  100,000  and  150,000 
of  the  insurgents  perished  on  the  field  or  elsewhere.  The 
insurrection  maintained  itself  in  the  Tyrol,  in  Salzburg, 
and  in  Styria  until  the  spring  of  1526  ;  in  all  other  dis- 
tricts of  Germany  the  insurgents  were  crushed  before  the 
close  of  1525.  No  attempt  was  made  to  cure  the  ills 
which  led  to  the  rising.  The  oppression  of  the  peasantry 
was  intensified.  The  last  vestiges  of  local  self-government 
were  destroyed,  and  the  unfortunate  people  were  doomed 
for  generations  to  exist  in  the  lowest  degradation.  The 
year  1525  was  one  of  the  saddest  in  the  annals  of  the 
German  Fatherland. 

The  Peasants'  War  had  a  profound,  lasting,  and  disas- 
trous effect  on  the  Eeformation  movement  in  Germany.  It 
affected  Luther  personally,  and  that  in  a  way  which  could 
not  fail  to  react  upon  the  cause  which  he  conspicuously 
led.  It  checked  the  spread  of  the  Eeformation  throughout 
the  whole  of  Germany.  It  threw  the  guidance  of  the 
movement  into  the  hands  of  the  evangelical  princes,  and 
destroyed  the  hope  that  it  might  give  birth  to  a  reformed 
National  German  Church. 


§  6.  Luther  and  the  Peasants'  War, 

The  effect  of  the  rising  upon  Luther's  own  character 
and  future  conduct  was  too  important  for  us  to  entirely 
pass  over  his  personal  relations  to  the  peasants  and  their 
revolt.  He  was  a  peasant's  son.  "  My  father,  my  grand- 
father, my  forebears,  were  all  genuine  peasants,"  he  was 
accustomed  to  say.  He  had  seen  and  pitied  the  oppression 
of  the  peasant  class,  and  had  denounced  it  in  his  own 
trenchant  fashion.  He  had  reproved  the  greed  of  the 
landlords,  when  he  said  that  if  tlie  peasant's  land  produced 
as  many  coins  as  ears  of  corn,  the  profit  would  go  to  the 
landlord  only.      He  had  puljlicly  expressed  his  approval  of 


836  THE  peasants'  war 

many  of  the  proposals  in  the  Twelve  Articles  long  before 
they  had  been  formulated  and  adopted  at  Memmingen  in 
March  1525,  and  had  advocated  a  return  to  the  old  com- 
munal laws  or  usages  of  Germany.  He  formally  declared  his 
agreement  with  tlie  substance  of  the  Twelve  Articles  after 
they  had  become  the  "  cliarter  "  of  the  revolt.  But  Luther, 
rightly  or  wrongly,  held  that  no  real  good  could  come  from 
armed  insurrection.  He  believed  with  all  the  tenacity  of 
his  nature,  that  while  there  might  be  two  roads  to  reform, 
the  way  of  peace,  and  the  way  of  war,  the  pathway  of 
peace  was  the  only  one  which  would  lead  to  lasting  benefit. 
After  the  storm  burst  he  risked  his  life  over  and  over 
again  in  visits  he  paid  to  the  disaffected  districts,  to  warn 
the  people  of  the  dangers  they  were  running.  After 
Munzer's  attempt  to  rouse  the  miners  of  Mansfeld,  and 
carry  fire  and  sword  into  the  district  where  his  parents 
were  living,  Luther  made  one  last  attempt  to  bring  the 
misguided  people  to  a  more  reasonable  course.  He  made  a 
preaching  tour  through  the  disaffected  districts.  He  went 
west  from  Eisleben  to  Stolberg  (April  21st,  1525);  thence 
to  Nordhausen,  where  Munzer's  sympathisers  rang  the 
bells  to  drown  his  voice;  south  to  Erfurt  (April  28th); 
north  again  to  the  fertile  valley  of  the  Golden  Aue 
and  to  Wallhausen  (May  1st);  south  again  to  Weimar 
(May  3rd),  where  news  reached  him  that  his  Elector 
was  dying,  and  that  he  had  expressed  the  wish  to  see 
him, — a  message  which  reached  him  too  late.  It  was 
on  this  journey,  or  shortly  after  his  return  to  Witten- 
berg (May  6th),  that  Luther  wrote  his  vehement  tract. 
Against  the  murdering,  thieving  hordes  of  Peasants.  He 
wrote  it  while  liis  mind  was  full  of  Miinzer's  calls  to 
slaughter,  when  the  danger  was  at  its  height,  with  all 
the  sights  and  sounds  of  destruction  and  turmoil  in  eye 
and  ear,  while  it  still  hung  in  the  balance  whether  the 
insurgent  bands  might  not  carry  all  before  them.  In 
this  terrible  pamphlet  Luther  hounded  on  the  princes  to 
crush  the  rising.  It  is  this  pamphlet,  aU  extenuating 
circumstances    being    taken    into    account,    which    must 


LUTHER   AND   THE   PEASANTS  837 

ever  remain  an  ineffaceable  stain  on  his  noble  life  and 
career.^ 

As  for  himself,  the  Peasants*  War  imprinted  in  him 
a  deep  distrust  of  all  who  had  any  connection  with  the 
rising.  He  had  not  forgotten  Carlstadt's  action  at  Witten- 
berg in  1521-1522,  and  when  Carlstadt  was  found 
attempting  to  preach  the  insurrection  in  Franconia  and 
Swabia,  Luther  never  forgave  him.  His  deep-rooted  and 
unquenchable  suspicion  of  Zwingli  may  be  traced  back  to 
his  discovery  that  friends  of  the  Zurich  Eeformer  had 
been  at  Memmingen,  had  aided  the  revolutionary  delegates 
to  draft  the  Twelve  Articles,  and  had  induced  them  to 
shelter  themselves  under  the  shield  of  a  religious  Eeforma- 
tion.  What  is  perhaps  more  important,  the  Peasants'  War 
gave  to  Luther  a  deep  and  abiding  distrust  of  the  "  common 
man"  which  was  altogether  lacking  in  the  earlier  stages 
of  his  career,  which  made  him  prevent  every  effort  to 
give  anything  like  a  democratic  ecclesiastical  organisation 
to  the  Evangelical  Church,  and  which  led  him  to  bind  his 
Eeformation  in  the  chains  of  secular  control  to  the  extent 
of  regarding  the  secular  authority  as  possessing  a  quasi- 
episcopal  function.2  It  is  probably  true  that  he  saved 
the  Eeformation  in  Germany  by  cutting  it  loose  from  the 
revolutionary  movement ;  but  the  wrench  left  marks  on 
his  own  character  as  well  as  on  that  of  the  movement  he 
headed.  Luther's  enemies  were  quick  to  make  capital  out 
of  his  relations  with  the  peasants,  and  Emser  compared 
him  to  Pilate,  who  washed  his  hands  after  betraying  Jesus 
to  the  Jews. 

*  After  speaking  about  the  duties  of  the  authorities,  he  proceeds :  **  In 
the  case  of  an  insurgent,  every  man  is  both  judge  and  executioner.  There- 
fore, whoever  can  should  knock  down,  strangle,  and  stab  such  publicly  or 
privately,  and  think  nothing  so  venomous,  pernicious,  and  devilish  as  an 
insurgent.  .  ,  .  Such  wonderful  times  are  these,  that  a  prince  can  merit 
heaven  better  with  bloodshed  than  another  with  prayer." 

'  Luther  dissuaded  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse  from  permanently  adopting 
the  democratic  ecclesiastical  constitution  drafted  by  Francis  Lambert  for 
the  Church  of  Hesse  in  1526.  The  rejected  constitution  has  been  printed 
by  Eichter  in  his  Die  evangtlischen  Kirchenordnungen  det  aechszehnten 
Jahrhunderts  (Weimar,  1846),  i.  56. 


338  THE   peasants'   war 

§  7.  Germany  divided  into  two  separate  Gamp», 

The  insurrection,  altogether  apart  from  its  personal 
effects  on  Luther,  had  a  profound  influence  on  the  whole  of 
the  German  Keformation.  Some  princes  who  had  hitherto 
favoured  the  Eomanist  side  were  confirmed  in  their  opposi- 
tion ;  others  who  had  hesitated,  definitely  abandoned  the 
cause  of  Eeform.  For  both,  it  seemed  that  a  social  revolu- 
tion of  a  desperate  kind  lay  behind  the  Protestant  Ee- 
formation.  Many  an  innocent  preacher  of  the  new  faith 
perished  in  the  disturbances — sought  out  and  slain  by  the 
princes  as  an  instigator  of  the  rebellion.  Duke  Anthony 
of  Lorraine,  for  example,  in  his  suppression  of  the  revolt 
in  Elsass,  made  no  concealment  of  his  belief  that  evangelical 
preachers  were  the  cause  of  the  rising,  and  butchered  them 
without  mercy  when  he  could  discover  them.  The  Curia 
found  that  the  Peasants'  War  was  an  admirable  text  to  preach 
from  when  they  insisted  that  Luther  was  another  Huss,  and 
that  the  movement  which  he  led  was  a  revival  of  the 
ecclesiastical  and  social  communism  of  the  extreme  Hussites 
(Taborites);  that  all  who  attacked  the  Church  of  Eome 
were  engaged  in  attempting  to  destroy  the  bases  of  society. 
It  was  after  the  Peasants'  War  that  the  Eoman  Catholic 
League  of  princes  grew  strong  in  numbers  and  in  cohesion. 

The  result  of  the  war  also  showed  that  the  one  strong 
political  element  in  Germany  was  the  princedom.  The 
Beichsregiment,  which  still  preserved  a  precarious  existence, 
had  shown  that  it  had  no  power  to  cope  with  the  dis- 
turbances, and  its  attempts  at  mediation  had  been  treated 
with  contempt.  From  this  year,  1525,  the  political  destiny 
of  the  land  was  distinctly  seen  to  be  definitely  shaping  for 
territorial  centralisation  round  the  greater  princes  and 
nobles.  It  was  inevitable  that  the  conservative  religious 
Eeformation  should  follow  the  lines  of  political  growth, 
with  the  result  that  there  could  not  be  a  National 
Evangelical  Church  of  Germany.  It  could  only  find 
outcome  in  territorial  Churches  under  the  rule  and  pro- 
tection   of    those    princes  who  from   motives    of   religion 


THE   peasants'   WAR  339 

and  conscience  had  adopted  the  principles  which  Luther 
preached. 

The  more  radical  religious  movement  broke  up  into 
fragments,  and  reappeared  in  the  guise  of  the  maligned 
and  persecuted  Anabaptists, — a  name  which  embraced  a 
very  wide  variety  of  religious  opinions, — some  of  whom 
appropriated  to  themselves  the  aspirations  of  the  social 
revolution  which  had  been  crushed  by  the  princes.  The 
conservative  and  Lutheran  Eeformation  found  its  main 
elements  of  strength  in  the  middle  classes  of  Germany ; 
while  the  Anabaptists  had  their  largest  following  among 
the  artisans  and  working  men  of  the  towns. 

The  terrors  of  the  time  separated  Germany  into  two 
hostile  camps — the  one  accepting  and  the  other  rejecting 
the  ecclesiastical  Eeformation,  which  ceased  to  be  a  national 
movement  in  any  real  sense  of  the  word. 


CHAPTER  V. 

FROM  THE  DIET  OF  SPEYER,   1526,   TO   THE 
RELIGIOUS   PEACE   OF  AUGSBURG,    1555. 

§  1.  The  Diet  of  Sjpeyer,  1526} 

When  Germany  emerged  from  the  social  revolution  in  the 
end  of  1525,  it  soon  became  apparent  that  the  religious 
question  remained  unsettled,  and  was  dividing  the  country 
into  two  parties  whose  differences  had  become  visibly 
accentuated,  and  that  both  held  as  strongly  as  ever  to 
their  distinctive  principles.  Perhaps  one  of  the  reasons 
for  the  increased  strain  was  the  conduct  of  many  of  the 
Eomanist  princes  in  suppressing  the  rebellion.  The 
victories  of  the  Swabian  League  in  South  Germany  were 
everywhere  followed  by  religious  persecution.  Men  were 
condemned  to  confiscation  of  goods  or  to  death,  not  for 
rebellion,  for  they  had  never  taken  part  in  the  rising,  but 
for  their  confessed  attachment  to  Lutheran  teaching.  The 
Lutheran  preachers  were  special  objects  of  attack.  Aichili, 
who  acted  as  a  provost-marshal  to  the  Swabian  League, 
made    himself   conspicuous   by  plundering,  mulcting,   and 

*  Sources  (besides  those  given  in  earlier  chapters) :  Ney,  "  Analeoten  znr 
Geschichte  des  Reichstags  zu  Speier  im  Jahr  1526  "  {Zeitschrift  fur  Kirdhm- 
gescMchte,  viii.  ix.  xii.);  Friedensburg,  Beitrdge  zum  Brief  wcchsel  zwischen 
Hertzog  Georg  von  Sachsen  und  Landgraf  Philip  von  Hessen  {Neuer  Archiv 
fur  Sachs.  Gesch.  vi.)  ;  Balan,  Clementis  VII.  Epistolce  (vol.  i.  o[  Monumenta 
SceculiXVI.  Historiam  illustrantia,  Innsbruck,  1885);  Csissmova.,  Letlere  di 
Carlo  V.  and  Clemente  VII.  1521-152S  (Florence,  1893) ;  Lanz,  Correspoudenz 
des  Kaisers  Karl  V.  (Leipzig,  1845) ;  Bradford,  Correspondence  of  Charles  V. 
(London,  1850). 

Later  Books:  Schonibnrgk,  Die  Pack'schen  Handel  (Miiiirenbrecher'i 
Hist.  Taschenbuck,  Leipzig,  1882) ;  Stoy,  £rste  Bdndnisbestrehungen  evange- 
lischen  Stande  (Jena,  1888) ;  Cambridge  Modern  History,  ii,  vi. 


The  diet  of  speyer,  1526  341 

putting  them  to  death.  It  is  said  that  he  hung  forty  //2 
Lutheran  pastors  on  the  trees  by  the  roadside  in  one  small 
district.  The  Koman  Catholic  princes  had  banded  them- 
selves together  for  mutual  defence  as  early  as  July  1525. 
The  more  influential  members  of  this  league  were  Duke 
George  of  Saxony,  the  Electors  of  Brandenburg  and  Mainz, 
and  Duke  Henry  of  Brunswick-Wolfenbiittel.  Duke  Henry 
was  selected  to  inform  the  Emperor  of  what  they  had  done, 
and  to  secure  his  sympathy  and  support.  He  told  Charles  V. 
that  the  league  had  been  formed  "  against  the  Lutherans  in 
case  they  should  attempt  by  force  or  cunning  to  gain  them 
over  to  their  unbelief." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Protestant  princes  had  a  mutual 
understanding — it  does  not  seem  to  have  been  a  definite 
league — to  defend  one  another  against  any  attack  upon 
their  faith.  The  leaders  were  John  of  Saxony,  Philip  of 
Hesse,  Dukes  Otto,  Ernest,  and  Francis  of  Brunswick- 
Liineberg,  and  the  Counts  of  Mansfeld.  Philip  of  Hesse 
was  the  soul  of  the  union.  They  could  count  on  the 
support  of  many  of  the  imperial  cities,  some  of  them,  such 
as  Niirnberg,  being  in  districts  where  the  country  lying 
around  was  ruled  by  Eomanist  princes. 

The  Diet,  which  met  at  Augsburg  in  1525,  was  very 
thinly  attended,  and  both  parties  waited  for  the  Diet  which 
was  to  be  held  at  Speyer  in  the  following  year. 

There  never  had  been  any  doubt  about  the  position  and 
opinions  of  the  Emperor  on  the  religious  question.  He 
had  stated  them  emphatically  at  the  Diet  of  Worms.  He 
had  been  educated  in  the  beliefs  of  mediaeval  Catholicism ; 
he  valued  the  ceremonies  and  usages  of  the  mediaeval 
worship ;  he  imderstood  no  other  ecclesiastical  polity ;  he 
believed  that  the  Bishop  of  Eome  was  the  head  of  the 
Church  on  earth  ;  he  had  consistently  persecuted  Protestants 
in  his  hereditary  dominions  from  the  beginning ;  be  desired 
the  execution  of  the  Edict  of  Worms  against  Luther.  If 
he  had  remained  in  Germany,  all  his  personal  and  official 
influence  would  have  been  thrown  into  the  scale  against 
the  evangelical  faith.     Troubles  in  Spain,  and  the  prosecu- 


342        FROM   SPEYER,    1526,    TO   AUGSBURG,    1565 

tion  of  the  war  against  Francis  of  France  had  prevented 
his  presence  in  Germany  after  his  first  brief  visit.  He 
had  now  conquered  and  taken  Francis  prisoner  at  the 
battle  of  Pavia.  The  terms  of  the  Treaty  of  Madrid 
bound  Francis  to  assist  Charles  in  suppressing  Lutheranism 
and  other  pernicious  sects  in  Germany,  and  when  it  was 
signed  the  Emperor  seemed  free  to  crush  the  German 
Protestants.  But  his  very  success  was  against  him; 
papal  diplomacy  wove  another  web  aroimd  him;  he  was 
still  unable  to  visit  the  Fatherland,  and  the  rehgioua 
question  had  to  be  discussed  at  Speyer  in  his  absence. 
'  When  the  Diet  met,  the  national  hostility  to  Eome 
showed  no  signs  of  abatement.  The  subject  of  German 
grievances  against  the  Curia  was  again  revived,  and  it  was 
alleged  that  the  chief  causes  of  the  Peasants'  War  were  the 
merciless  exactions  of  clerical  landholders.  Perhaps  this 
opinion  was  justified  by  the  fact  that  the  condition  of 
the  peasantry  on  the  lands  of  monasteries  and  of  bishops 
was  notoriously  worse  than  that  of  those  under  secular 
proprietors ;  and  that,  while  the  clerical  landholders  had 
done  Uttle  to  subdue  the  rebels,  they  had  been  merciless 
after  the  insurgents  had  been  subdued.  There  was  truth 
enough  in  the  charge  to  make  it  a  sufficient  answer  to  the 
accusation  that  the  social  revolution  had  been  the  outcome 
of  Luther's  teaching. 

Ferdinand  of  Austria  presided  in  his  brother's  absence, 
and,  acting  on  the  Emperor's  instructions,  he  demanded 
the  enforcement  of  the  Edict  of  Worms  and  a  decree  of 
the  Diet  to  forbid  all  innovations  in  worship  and  in  doc- 
trine. He  promised  that  if  these  imperial  demands  were 
granted,  the  Emperor  would  induce  the  Pope  to  call  a 
General  Council  for  the  definite  settlement  of  the  religious 
difficulties.  But  the  Diet  was  not  inchned  to  adopt  the 
suggestions.  The  Emperor  was  at  war  with  the  Pope. 
Many  of  the  clerical  members  felt  themselves  to  be  in  a 
delicate  position,  and  did  not  attend.  The  Lutheran  sym- 
pathisers wer^  in  a  majority,  and  the  delegates  from  the 
cities  insisted  that  it  was  impossible  to  enforce  the  Edict 


THE    DIKT   OF    1626  343 

of  Worms.  The  Committee  of  Princes  ^  proposed  to  settle 
the  religiomj  question  by  a  compromise  which  was  almost 
wholly  favourable  to  the  Eeformation.  They  suggested 
that  the  marriage  of  priests,  giving  the  cup  to  the  laity, 
the  use  of  German  as  well  as  Latin  in  the  baptismal  and 
communion  services,  should  be  recognised ;  that  all  private 
Masses  should  be  abolished ;  that  the  number  of  ecclesi- 
astical holy  days  should  be  largely  reduced  ;  and  that  in  the 
exposition  of  Holy  Writ  the  rule  ought  to  be  that  scripture 
should  be  interpreted  by  scripture.  After  a  good  deal  of 
fencing,  the  Diet  finally  resolved  on  a  deliverance  which 
provided  that  the  word  of  God  should  be  preached  with- 
out disturbance,  that  indemnity  should  be  granted  for  past 
offences  against  the  Edict  of  Worms,  and  that,  until  the 
meeting  of  a  General  Council  to  be  held  in  a  German  city, 
each  State  should  so  live  as  it  hoped  to  answer  for  its  con- 
duct to  God  and  to  the  Emperor. 

The  decision  was  a  triumph  for  the  territorial  system 
as  well  as  for  the  Eeformation,  and  foreshadowed  the  per- 
manent religious  peace  of  Augsburg  (1555).  It  is  difficult 
to  see  how  either  Charles  or  Ferdinand  could  have  accepted 
it.  Their  acquiescence  was  probably  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  Emperor  was  then  at  war  with  the  Pope  (the  sack  of 
Rome  under  the  Constable  Bourbon  took  place  on  May 
6th,  1527),  and  that  the  threat  of  a  German  ecclesiastical 
revolt  was  a  good  weapon  to  use  against  His  Holiness. 
Ferdinand  was  negotiating  for  election  to  the  crowns  of 
Hungary  and  Bohemia,  and  dared  not  offend  his  German 
subjects.  Both  brothers  looked  on  any  concessions  to  the 
German  Lutherans  as  temporary  compromises  to  be  with- 
drawn as  soon  as  they  were  able  to  enforce  their  own 
views. 

The  Protestant  States  and  cities  at  once  interpreted 
this  decision  of  the  Diet  to  mean  that  they  had  the  legal 
right  to  organise  territorial  Churches  and  to  introduce  such 

*  The  Diet  was  accustomed  to  appoint  a  Committee  of  Princes  to  put  in 
shape    their  more    important    ordinances.     The  ordinance  was    called   a 


344        FROM   SPEYER,    1526,    TO    AUGSBURG,    1656 

changes  into  public  worship  as  would  bring  it  into  harmony 
with  their  evangelical  beliefs.^  The  latent  evangelical  feel* 
ing  at  once  manifested  itself.  Almost  all  Nortli  Germany, 
except  Brandenburg,  Ducal  Saxony,  and  Brunswick- Wolfen- 
biittel,  became  Lutheran  within  three  years.  Still  it  has  to 
be  noticed  that  the  legal  recognition  was  accorded  to  the 
secular  authorities,  and  that  a  ruling  prince,  who  had  no 
very  settled  religious  convictions,  might  change  the  religion 
of  his  principahty  from  political  or  selfish  motives.  It 
became  evident  in  1529  that  political  feeling  or  fear  of  the 
Emperor  was  much  stronger  than  resolutions  to  support 
the  evangelical  Reformation. 

Soon  after  the  Diet,  Philip  of  Hesse  committed  a 
political  blunder  which,  in  the  opinion  of  many  of  his 
evangelical  friends,  involved  disloyalty  to  the  Fatherland, 
made  them  chary  of  associating  themselves  with  him,  and 
greatly  weakened  the  Protestant  party.  For  most  of  these 
North  German  princes,  in  spite  of  their  clinging  to  the 
disruptive  territorial  principle,  had  a  rugged  conscientious 
patriotism  which  made  them  feel  that  no  good  German 
should  seek  the  aid  of  France  or  make  alliance  with  a 
Czech.  Many  of  the  Roman  Catholic  princes,  irritated  at 
the  spread  and  organisation  of  Lutheranism  which  followed 
the  decision  of  the  Diet  of  1526,  had  been  persecuting  by 
confiscation  of  goods  and  by  death  their  Lutheran  subjects. 
The  Landgrave  had  married  the  daughter  of  Duke  George 
of  Saxony,  and  he  knew  that  his  father-in-law  was  con- 
tinually uttering  threats  against  the  Elector  of  Saxony. 
Brooding  over  these  things,  Philip  became  gradually  con- 
vinced that  the  Romanist  princes  were  planning  a  deadly 
assault  on  the  Lutherans,  and  that  first  the  Elector  and 
then  he  himself  would  be  attacked  and  their  territories 
partitioned  among  the  conquerors.  He  had  no  proof,  but 
his  suspicions  were  strong.  Chance  brought  him  in  contact 
with  Otto  von  Pack,  the  steward  of  the  Chancery  of  Ducal 
Saxony,  who,  on  being  questioned,  admitted  that  the  sus- 

*  A  description  of  the  changes  in  organisation  and  worship  introduced 
after  the  decision  of  the  Diet  of  1526  is  reserved  for  a  separate  chapter. 


THE   DIET    OF    1529  845 

pfcions  of  Philip  were  correct,  and  promised  to  procure  a 
copy  of  the  treaty.  Pack  was  a  scoundrel.  No  such 
treaty  existed.  He  forged  a  document  which  he  declared 
to  be  a  copy  of  a  genuine  treaty,  and  got  4000  gulden  for 
his  pains.  Philip  took  the  forgery  to  the  Elector  of  'Saxony 
and  to  Luther,  both  of  whom  had  no  doubt  of  its  genuine 
character.  They  both,  however,  refused  to  agree  to  Philip's 
plan  of  seeking  assistance  outside  the  Empire.  The  Land- 
grave believed  the  situation  too  dangerous  to  be  faced 
passively.  He  tried  to  secure  the  assistance  of  Francis  of 
France  and  of  Zapolya,  the  determined  opponent  of  the 
House  of  Austria  in  Bohemia.  It  was  not  until  he  had 
fully  committed  himself  that  the  discovery  was  made  that 
the  document  he  had  trusted  in  was  nothing  but  a  forgery. 
His  hasty  action  in  appealing  to  France  and  Hungary  to 
interfere  in  the  domestic  concerns  of  the  Empire  was 
resented  by  his  co-religionists.  When  the  Diet  met  at 
Speyer,  the  Lutherans  were  divided  and  discredited.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor  were  no  longer 
at  war,  and  the  clerical  members  flocked  to  the  Diet  in 
large  numbers. 

At  this  memorable  Diet  of  Speyer  (1529),  a  compact 
Roman  Catholic  majority  faced  a  weak  Lutheran  minority. 
The  Emperor,  through  his  commissioners,  declared  at  the 
outset  that  he  abolished,  "by  his  imperial  and  absolute 
authority  {Machtvollkommenheit)"  the  clause  in  the  ordinance 
of  1 5  2  6  on  which  the  Lutherans  had  relied  when  they  founded 
their  territorial  Churches ;  it  had  been  the  cause,  he  said,  "  of 
much  ill  counsel  and  misunderstanding."  The  majority  of 
the  Diet  upheld  the  Emperor's  decision,  and  the  practical 
effect  of  the  ordinance  which  was  voted  was  to  rescind 
that  of  1526.  It  declared  that  the  German  States  which 
had  accepted  the  Edict  of  Worms  should  continue  to  do 
80 ;  which  meant  that  there  was  to  be  no  toleration  for 
Lutherans  in  Eomanist  districts.  It  said  that  in  districts 
which  had  departed  from  the  Edict  no  further  innovations 
were  to  be  made,  save  that  no  one  was  to  be  prevented 
from  hearing  Mass ;  that  sects  which  denied  the  sacrament 


346        FROM   SPEYER,    1526,    TO    AUGSBURG,    1665 

of  the  true  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  (Zwinglians)  should 
no  more  be  tolerated  than  Anabaptists.  What  was  most 
important,  it  declared  that  no  ecclesiastical  body  should 
be  deprived  of  its  authority  or  revenues.  It  was  this 
last  clause  which  destroyed  all  possibility  of  creating 
Lutheran  Churches  ;  for  it  meant  that  the  mediaeval  ecclesi- 
astical rule  was  everywhere  to  be  restored,  and  with  it 
the  right  of  bishops  to  deal  with  all  preachers  within  their 
diocesea 

§  2.   The  Protest} 

It  was  this  ordinance  which  called  forth  the  celebrated 
Protest,  from  which  comes  the  name  Protestant.  The 
Protest  was  read  in  the  Diet  on  the  day  (April  19th,  1529) 
when  all  concessions  to  the  Lutherans  had  been  refused. 
Ferdinand  and  the  other  imperial  commissioners  would  not 
permit  its  publication  in  the  "  recess,"  and  the  protesters 
had  a  legal  instrument  drafted  and  published,  in  which  they 
embodied  the  Protest,  with  all  the  necessary  documents 
annexed.  The  legal  position  taken  was  that  the  unanim- 
ous decision  of  one  Diet  (1526)  could  not  be  rescinded 
by  a  majority  in  a  second  Diet  (1529).  The  Protesters 
declared  that  they  meant  to  abide  by  the  "recess"  of 
1526;  that  the  "recess"  of  1529  was  not  to  be  held 
binding  on  them,  because  they  were  not  consenting  parties. 
When  forced  to  make  their  choice  between  obedience  to 
God  and  obedience  to  the  Emperor,  they  were  compelled 
to  choose  the  former ;  and  they  appealed,  from  the  wrongs 
done  to  them  at  the  Diet,  to  the  Emperor,  to  the  next  free 
General  Council  of  Holy  Christendom,  or  to  an  ecclesi- 
astical congress  of  the  German  nation.  The  document 
was  signed  by  the  Elector  John  of  Saxony,  Margrave 
George  of  Brandenburg,  Dukes  Ernest  and  Francis  of 
Brunswick-Llineburg,  Landgrave  Philip  of  Hesse,  and  Prince 
Wolfgang  of  Anhalt.  The  fourteen  cities  which  adhered 
were  Strassburg,  Niirnberg,  Uhn,  Constance,  Lindau,  Mem- 

*  Ney,  Geschichte  des  Reichsfages  zu  Speier  in  1529  (Hamburg,  1880) ; 
Tittmann,  Die  Protestation  zu  S^jeyer  (Leipzig,  1829). 


THE   PROTEST  347 

mingen,  Kempten,  Nordlingen,  Heilbronn,  Reutlingen,  Isny, 
St.  Gallen,  Weissenburg,  and  Windsheim.  Many  of  these 
cities  were  Zwinglian  rather  than  Lutheran ;  but  all  united 
in  face  of  the  common  danger. 

The  Protest  at  Speyer  embodied  the  principle,  not  a 
new  one,  that  a  minority  of  German  States,  when  they  felt 
themselves  oppressed  by  a  majority,  could  entrench  them- 
selves behind  the  laws  of  the  Empire;  and  the  idea  is 
seen  at  work  onward  to  the  Diet  of  1555,  when  it  was 
definitely  recognised.  Such  a  minority,  to  maintain  a  suc- 
cessful defence,  had  to  be  united  and  able  to  protect  itself 
by  force  if  necessary.  This  was  at  once  felt ;  and  three 
days  after  the  Protest  had  been  read  in  the  Diet  (April, 
22nd),  Electoral  Saxony,  Hesse,  and  the  cities  of  Strass- 
burg,  Ulm,  and  Niirnberg  had  concluded  a  "secret  and 
particular  treaty."  They  pledged  themselves  to  mutual 
defence  if  attacked  on  account  of  God's  word,  whether  the 
onslaught  came  from  the  Swabian  League,  from  the  Beichs- 
regiment,  or  from  the  Emperor  himself.  Soon  after  the 
Diet,  proposals  were  brought  forward  to  make  the  compact 
effective  and  extensive, — one  drafted  by  representatives 
of  the  cities  and  the  other  by  the  Elector  of  Saxony, — 
which  provided  very  thoroughly  for  mutual  support;  but 
neither  took  into  account  the  differences  which  lay  behind 
the  Protest.  These  divergences  were  strong  enough  to 
wreck  the  union. 

The  differences  which  separated  the  German  Protestants 
were  not  wholly  theological,  although  their  doctrinal  dis- 
putes were  most  in  evidence. 


§  3.  Luther  and  Zwingli. 

A  movement  for  reformation,  which  owed  little  or 
nothing  to  Wittenberg,  had  been  making  rapid  progress  in 
Switzerland,  and  two  of  the  strongest  cantons,  Zurich  and 
Bern,  had  revolted  from  the  Roman  Church.  Its  leader, 
Huldreich  Zwingli,  was  utterly  unlike  Luther  in  tempera- 
ment, training,  and  environment. 


348        FROM    SPEYER,    1626,    TO    AUGSBURG,    1655 

He  had  never  gone  through  the  terrible  spiritual  con- 
flicts which  had  marked  Luther  for  life,  and  had  made  him 
the  man  that  he  was.  No  deep  sense  of  personal  sin  had 
ever  haunted  him,  to  make  his  early  manhood  a  burden  to 
him.  Long  after  he  had  become  known  as  a  Eeformer,  he 
was  able  to  combine  a  strong  sense  of  moral  responsibility 
with  some  laxity  in  private  life.  Unlike  both  Luther  and 
Calvin,  he  was  not  the  type  of  man  to  be  leader  in  a 
deeply  spiritual  revival. 

He  had  been  subjected  to  the  influences  of  Humanism 
from  his  childhood.  His  uncle,  Bartholomew  Zwingli, 
parish  priest  at  Wildhaus,  and  the  dean  of  Wesen,  under 
whose  charge  the  boy  was  placed,  had  a  strong  sympathy 
for  the  New  Learning,  and  the  boy  imbibed  it.  His 
young  intellect  was  fed  on  Homer  and  Pindar  and  Cicero ; 
and  all  his  life  he  esteemed  the  great  pagans  of  antiquity 
as  highly  as  he  did  any  Christian  saint.  If  it  can  be  said 
that  he  bent  before  the  dominating  influence  of  any  one 
man,  it  was  Erasmus  and  not  Luther  who  compelled  him 
to  admiration.  He  had  for  a  teacher  Thomas  Wyttenbach, 
who  was  half  Eeformer  and  half  disciple  of  Erasmus ;  and 
learned  from  him  to  study  the  Scriptures  and  the  writings 
of  such  earlier  Church  Fathers  as  Origen,  Jerome,  and 
Chrysostom.  Like  many  another  Humanist  north  of  the 
Alps,  the  mystical  Christian  Platonism  of  Pico  della 
Mirandola  had  some  influence  on  him.  He  had  never 
studied  the  Scholastic  Theology,  and  knew  nothing  of  the 
spell  it  cast  over  men  who  had  been  trained  in  it.  Of  all 
the  Eeformers,  Luther  was  the  least  removed  from  the 
mediaeval  way  of  looking  at  religion,  and  Zwingli  had 
wandered  farthest  from  it. 

His  earliest  ecclesiastical  surroundings  were  also  different 
from  Luther's.  He  had  never  been  taught  in  childhood  to 
consider  the  Church  to  be  the  Pope's  House,  in  which  the 
Bishop  of  Eome  was  entitled  to  the  reverence  and  obedience 
due  to  the  house-father.  In  his  land  the  people  had  been 
long  accustomed  to  manage  their  own  ecclesiastical  affairs. 
The  greater  portion  of  Switzerland  had  known  but  little 


ZWINGLI   AND   LUTHER  349 

either  of  the  benefits  or  disadvantages  of  mediaeval  episcopal 
rule.  Church  property  paid  its  share  of  the  communal 
taxes,  and  even  the  monasteries  and  convents  were  liable 
to  civil  inspection.  If  a  stray  tourist  at  the  present  day 
wanders  into  the  church  which  is  called  the  Cathedral 
in  that  survival  of  ancient  mediaeval  republics,  San  Marino, 
he  will  find  that  the  seats  of  the  "  consuls  '*  of  the  Httle 
republic  occupy  the  place  where  he  expects  to  find  the 
bishop's  chair.  The  civil  power  asserted  its  supremacy 
over  the  ecclesiastical  in  most  things  in  these  small 
mediaeval  republics.  The  Popes  needed  San  Marino  to 
be  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  Malatesta  of  Kimini,  they 
hired  most  of  their  soldiers  from  the  Swiss  cantons,  and 
therefore  tolerated  many  things  which  they  would  not  have 
permitted  elsewhere. 

The  social  environment  of  the  Swiss  Reformer  was  very 
different  from  that  of  Luther.  He  was  a  free  Swiss  who 
had  listened  in  childhood  to  tales  of  the  heroic  fights  of 
Morgarten,  Sempach,  Morat,  and  Nancy,  and  had  imbibed 
the  hereditary  hatred  of  the  House  of  Hapsburg.  He  had 
no  fear  of  the  "  common  man,"  Luther's  bugbear  after 
the  Peasants'  War.  Orderly  democratic  Hfe  was  the  air  he 
breathed,  and  what  reverence  Luther  had  for  the  Emperor 
"  who  protected  poor  people  against  the  Turk,"  and  for  the 
lords  of  the  soil,  Zwingli  paid  to  the  civic  fathers  elected 
by  a  popular  vote.  When  the  German  Reformer  thought 
of  Zwingli  he  was  always  muttering  what  Archbishop 
Parker  said  of  John  Knox — "  God  keep  us  from  such 
visitations  as  Knockes  hath  attempted  in  Scotland ;  the 
people  to  be  orderers  of  things ! "  ^ 

Owing  doubtless  to  this  republican  training,  Zwingli 
had  none  of  that  aloofness  from  political  affairs  which  was 
a  marked  characteristic  of  Luther.  He  beUeved  that  his 
mission  had  as  much  to  do  with  politics  as  with  religion, 
and  that  religious  reformation  was  to  be  worked  out  by 
political   forces,  whether  in   the  more   limited    sphere   of 

^  Calendar  of  State  Pajiers,   Foreign  Series,  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth^ 
1SS9-1560,  p.  84. 


350        FROM    SPEYER,    1526,    TO   AUGSBURG,    1555 

Switzerland  or  in  larger  Germany.  He  had  never  taken 
a  step  forward  until  he  had  carried  along  with  him  the 
civic  authorities  of  Zurich.  His  advance  had  always  been 
calculated.  Luther's  Theses  (November  1517)  had  been 
the  volcanic  outburst  of  a  conscience  troubled  by  the  sight 
of  a  great  rehgious  scandal,  and  their  author  had  no  inten- 
tion of  doing  more  than  protesting  against  the  one  great 
evil ;  he  had  no  idea  at  the  time  where  his  protest  was 
leading  him.  Zwingli's  Theses  (January  1523)  were  the 
carefully  drafted  programme  of  a  Eeformation  which  he 
meant  to  accomplish  by  degrees,  and  through  the  assistance 
of  the  Council  of  Zurich.  His  mind  was  full  of  political 
combinations  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  his  plans  of 
reformation.  As  early  as  1524  he  was  in  correspondence 
with  Pirkheimer  about  the  possibility  of  a  league  between 
Niirnberg  and  Zurich — two  powerful  Protestant  towns. 
This  league  did  not  take  shape.  But  in  1527  a  religious 
and  political  league  {das  christliche  Burgerrecht)  was  con- 
cluded between  Zurich  and  Constance,  an  imperial  German 
town;  St.  Gallen  joined  in  1528;  Biel,  Miihlhausen,  and 
Basel  in  1529;  even  Strassburg,  afraid  of  the  growing 
power  of  the  House  of  Hapsburg,  was  included  in  1530. 
The  feverish  political  activity  of  Zwingli  commended  him 
to  Philip  of  Hesse  almost  as  strongly  as  it  made  him 
disliked,  and  even  feared,  by  Ferdinand  of  Austria.  The 
Elector  of  Saxony  and  Luther  dreaded  his  influence  over 
"  the  young  man  of  Hesse." 

Melanchthon  was  the  first  to  insist  on  the  evil  influences 
of  Zwingli's  activity  for  the  peace  of  the  Empire.  He 
persuaded  himself  that  had  the  Lutherans  stood  alone  at 
Speyer,  the  Eomanists  would  have  been  prepared  to  make 
concessions  which  would  have  made  the  Protest  needless. 
He  returned  to  Wittenberg  full  of  misgivings.  The  Protest 
might  lead  to  a  defiance  of  the  Emperor,  and  to  a  subversion 
of  the  Empire.  Was  it  right  for  subjects  to  defend  them 
selves  by  war  against  the  civil  power  which  was  ord  lined  of 
God  ?  "  My  conscience,"  he  wrote,  "  is  disquieted  because 
of  this  thing ;  I  am  Iialf  dead  with  thinking  about  it." 


ZWINGLI   AND   LUTHER  351 

He  found  Luther  only  too  sympathetic ;  resolute  to 
maintain  that  if  the  prince  commanded  anything  which 
was  contrary  to  the  word  of  God,  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
subject  to  offer  what  passive  resistance  he  was  able,  but 
that  it  was  never  right  to  oppose  him  actively  by  force 
of  arms.  Still  less  was  it  the  duty  of  a  Christian  man  to 
ally  himself  for  such  resistance  with  those  who  did  not 
hold  "  the  whole  truth  of  God."  Luther  would  therefore 
have  nothing  to  do  with  an  alliance  offensive  and  defensive 
against  the  Emperor  with  cities  who  shared  in  what  he 
believed  to  be  the  errors  of  Zwingli. 

This  meant  a  great  deal  more  than  a  break  with  the 
I  Swiss.  The  south  German  towns  of  Strassburg,  Memmin- 
gen,  Constance,  Lindau,  and  others  were  more  Zwinglian 
than  Lutheran.  It  was  not  only  that  they  were  inchned 
to  the  more  radical  theology  of  the  Swiss  Eeformer ;  they 
found  that  his  method  of  organising  a  reformed  Church, 
drafted  for  the  needs  of  Zurich,  suited  their  municipal 
institutions  better  than  the  territorial  organisations  beingr 
adopted  by  the  Lutheran  Churches  of  North  Germany. 
To  Luther,  whose  views  of  the  place  of  the  "  common  man  " 
in  the  Church  had  been  changed  by  the  Peasants'  War, 
this  was  of  itself  a  danger  which  threatened  the  welfare 
of  the  infant  Churches.  It  made  ecclesiastical  government 
too  democratic ;  and  it  did  this  in  the  very  centres  where 
the  democracy  was  most  dangerous.  He  could  not  forget 
that  the  mob  of  these  German  towns  had  taken  part  in 
the  recently  suppressed  social  revolution,  that  their  working- 
class  population  was  still  the  recruiting  ground  of  the  Ana- 
baptist sectaries,  and  that  at  Memmingen  itself  Zwinglian 
partisans  had  helped  to  organise  the  revolution,  and  to  link 
it  on  to  the  religious  awakening.  Besides,  the  attraction 
which  drew  these  German  cities  to  the  Swiss  might  lead 
to  larger  political  consequences  which  seemed  to  threaten 
what  unity  remained  to  the  German  Empire.  It  might 
result  in  the  detachment  of  towns  from  the  German  Father- 
land, and  in  the  formation  of  new  cantons  cut  adrift  from 
Germany  to  increase  the  strength  of  the  Swiss  Confederation. 


352        PROM   SPEYER,    1526,   TO   AUGSBURO,   16U 

§  4.   The  Marburg  Colloquy} 

All  these  thoughts  were  in  the  minds  of  Luther  and 
of  his  fellow  theologians,  and  had  their  weight  with  the 
Elector  of  Saxony,  when  their  refusal  to  join  rendered  the 
proposed  defensive  league  impossible.  No  one  was  more 
disappointed  than  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  the  ablest 
political  leader  whom  the  German  Eeformation  produced. 
He  knew  more  about  Zwingli  than  his  fellow  princes  in 
North  Germany ;  he  had  a  keen  interest  in  theological 
questions ;  he  sympathised  to  some  extent  with  the  special 
opinions  of  Zwingli ;  and  he  had  not  the  dread  of  demo- 
cracy which  possessed  Luther  and  his  Elector.  He  believed, 
rightly  as  events  showed,  that  differences  or  suspected  dif- 
ferences in  theology  were  the  strongest  causes  of  separation  ; 
he  was  correct  in  supposing  that  the  Lutheran  divines 
through  ignorance  magnified  those  points  of  difference ;  and 
he  hoped  that  if  the  Lutherans  and  the  Swiss  could  be 
brought  together,  they  would  learn  to  know  each  other 
better.  So  he  tried  to  arrange  for  a  religious  conference 
in  his  castle  at  Marburg.  He  had  many  a  difficulty 
to  overcome  so  far  as  the  Lutherans  were  concerned. 
Neither  Luther  nor  Melanchthon  desired  to  meet  ZwinglL 
Melanchthon  thought  that  if  a  conference  was  to  be 
held,  it  would  be  much  better  to  meet  Oecolampadius  and 
perhaps  some  learned  Romanists.  Zwingli,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  eager  to  meet  Luther.     He  responded  at  once. 

*  Sources  :  Schirrmacher,  Brief e  und  Aden  zu  der  Geschichte  des  Belt- 
gionsgesprdches  zu  Marburg,  1529,  und  des  Reichstages  zu  Augsburg,  1530 
(Gotha,  1876) ;  Bucer,  Eistorisclie  Nachricht  von  dem  Gesprach  zu  Marburg 
(Simler,  Sammlu7ig,  II,  ii.  471  ff.);  Rudolphi  CoUini,  "Summa  CoUoquii 
Marpurgensis,"  printed  in  Hospinian,  Historia  sacramentaria,  iL  123J-1266, 
and  in  Zvnnglii  Opera,  iv.  175-180  (Zurich,  1841) ;  Brieger  in  Zeitschrift 
fur  Kirchengeschichte,  i.  628  ft". 

Later  Books  :  Ebrard,  Das  Dogina  vom  heiligen  Abendmahl  und  seine 
Qeschiclite,  vol.  ii.  (Frankfurt  a.  M.  1846  ;  the  author  has  classified  the 
accounts  of  the  i)ersons  present  at  the  conference,  and  given  a  combined 
description  of  the  discussion,  pp.  308  n.  and  314  M'.);  Erichson,  Das  Marbicrger 
Jteligionsgesprach  (Stra,8ahnrg,  1880)  ;  Bess,  Lulhcr  in  Marburg,  1629  {Preuss 
Jahrbucher,  civ.  418-431,  Berlin,  1901). 


THE   MARBURG    COLLOQUY  353 

He  came,  without  waiting  for  leave  to  be  given  by  the 
Zurich  Council,  across  a  country  full  of  enemies.  The 
conference  met  from  October  30th  to  November  5th,  1529. 
Luther  was  accompanied  by  Melanchthon,  Justus  Jonas, 
and  Cruciger,  Frederick  Mecum  from  Gotha,  Osiander  from 
Nlirnberg,  Brenz  from  Hall,  Stephan  Agricola  from  Augs- 
burg, and  others.  With  Zwingli  came  Oecolampadius, 
Bucer,  and  Hedio  from  Strassburg,  Eudolph  Collin  (who 
has  left  the  fullest  account  of  the  discussion),  two  coun- 
cillors from  Basel  and  horn  Zurich,  and  Jacob  Sturm  from 
Strassburg.  After  a  preliminary  conference  between  Zwingli 
and  Melanchthon  on  the  one  hand,  and  Luther  and  Oecol- 
ampadius on  the  other,  the  real  discussion  took  place  in 
the  great  hall  of  the  Castle.  The  tourist  is  still  shown 
the  exact  spot  where  the  table  which  separated  the  dis- 
putants was  placed. 

This  Marburg  Colloquy,  as  the  conference  was  called,  had 
important  results  for  good,  although  it  was  unsuccessful  in 
fulfilling  the  expectations  of  the  Landgrave.  It  showed  a 
real  and  substantial  harmony  between  the  two  sets  of 
theologians  on  all  points  save  one.  Fifteen  theological 
articles  (The  Marhurg  Articles)  stated  the  chief  heads  of 
the  Christian  faith,  and  fourteen  were  signed  by  Luther 
and  by  Zwingli.  The  one  subject  on  which  they  could 
not  come  to  an  agreement  was  the  relation  of  the  Body 
of  Christ  to  the  elements  Bread  and  Wine  in  the  Sacra- 
ment of  the  Supper.  It  was  scarcely  to  be  expected  that 
there  could  be  harmony  on  a  doctrinal  matter  on  which 
there  had  been  such  a  long  and  embittered  controversy. 

Both  theologians  found  in  the  mediaeval  doctrine  of 
the  Sacrament  of  the  Supper  what  they  believed  to  be  an 
overwhelming  error  destructive  to  the  spiritual  life.  It 
presupposed  that  a  priest,  in  virtue  of  mysterious  powers 
conferred  in  ordination,  could  give  or  withhold  from  the 
Christian  people  the  benefits  conveyed  in  the  Sacrament. 
It  asserted  that  the  priest  could  change  the  elements  Bread 
and  Wine  into  the  very  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ,  and 
that  unless  this  change  was  made  there  was  no  presence 


354  FROM   SPKYER,    1626,    TO   AUGSBURG,    1565 

of  Christ  in  the  sacrament,  and  no  possibility  of  sacramental 
grace  for  the  communicant.  Luther  attacked  the  problem 
as  a  mediaeval  Christian,  content,  if  he  was  able  to  purge 
the  ordinance  of  this  one  fault,  to  leave  all  else  as  he  found 
it.  Zwingli  came  as  a  Humanist,  whose  fundamental  rule 
was  to  get  beyond  the  mediaeval  theology  altogether,  and 
attempt  to  discover  how  the  earlier  Church  Fathers 
could  aid  him  to  solve  the  problem.  This  difference  in 
mental  attitude  led  them  to  approach  the  subject  from 
separate  sides  ;  and  the  mediaeval  way  of  looking  at  the 
whole  subject  rendered  difference  of  approach  very  easy. 
The  mediaeval  Church  had  divided  the  Sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  into  two  distinct  parts — the  Mass  and  the 
Eucharist.^  The  Mass  was  inseparably  connected  with  the 
thought  of  the  great  Sacrifice  of  Christ  upon  the  Cross, 
and  the  Eucharist  with  the  thought  of  the  believer's  com- 
munion with  the  Eisen  Living  Christ.  Zwingli  attacked 
the  Eomanist  doctrine  of  the  Mass,  and  Luther  sought  to 
give  an  evangelical  meaning  to  the  mediaeval  conception  of 
the  Eucharist.  Hence  the  two  Protestant  antagonists  were 
never  exactly  facing  each  other. 

Luther's  convent  studies  in  D'Ailly,  Biel,  and  their 
common  master,  William  of  Occam,  enabled  him  to  show 
that  there  might  be  the  presence  of  the  Glorified  Body  of 
Christ,  extended  in  space,  in  the  elements  Bread  and  Wine 
in  a  natural  way,  and  without  any  priestly  miracle :  and 
that  satisfied  him;  it  enabled  him  to  deny  the  priestly 
miracle  and  keep  true  in  the  most  literal  way  to  the  words 
of  the  institution,  "  This  is  My  Body." 
I  Zwingli,  on  the  other  hand,  insisted  that  the  primary 
'reference  in  the  Lord's  Supper  was  to  the  death  of  Christ, 
and  that  it  was  above  all  things  a  commemorative  rite. 
He  transformed  the  mediaeval  Mass  into  an  evangelical 
sacrament,  by  placing  the  idea  of  commemoration  where 
the  mediaeval  theologian  had  put  that  of  repetition,  and 
held  that   the  means  of  appropriation  was  faith  and  not 

^  In  the  Canons  and  Decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent  the  Sacrifice  of  the 
Mass  is  defined  in  the  22nd  Session,  and  the  Eucharist  in  the  13th  Session. 


THE   DOCTRINE    OF   THE    EUCHARIST  355 

eating  with  the  mouth.  This  he  held  to  be  a  return  to 
the  behef  of  the  early  centuries,  before  the  conception  of 
the  sacrament  had  been  corrupted  by  pagan  ideas. 

Like  Luther,  he  served  himself  heir  to  the  work  of 
earlier  theologians ;  but  he  did  not  go  to  Occam,  Biel,  or 
D'Ailly,  as  the  German  Eeformer  had  done.  Erasmus,  who 
had  no  liking  for  the  priestly  miracle  in  the  Mass,  and 
cared  little  for  a  rigid  literal  interpretation  of  the  words 
of  the  institution,  had  declared  that  the  Sacrament  of  the 
Supper  was  the  symbol  of  commemoration,  of  a  covenant 
with  God,  and  of  the  fellowship  of  all  believers  in  Christ, 
and  tl  s  commended  itself  to  Zwingli's  conception  of  the 
social  character  of  Christianity;  but  he  was  too  much  a 
Christian  theologian  to  be  contented  with  such  a  vague 
idea  of  the  rite.  Many  theologians  of  the  later  Middle 
Ages,  when  speculation  was  more  free  than  it  could  be 
after  the  stricter  definitions  of  the  Council  of  Trent, 
had  tried  to  purify  and  spiritualise  the  beliefs  of  the 
Church  about  the  meaning  of  the  central  Christian  rite. 
Foremost  among  them  was  John  Wessel  (c.  1420-1489), 
with  his  long  and  elaborate  treatise,  De  Sacramento  Eucha- 
ristim.  He  had  taught  that  the  Lord's  Supper  is  the  rite 
in  which  the  death  of  Christ  is  presented  to  and  appro- 
priated by  the  believer;  that  it  is  above  all  things  a 
commemoration  of  that  death  and  a  communion  or  par- 
ticipation in  the  benefits  which  followed  ;  that  communion 
with  the  spiritual  presence  of  Jesus  is  of  far  more  im- 
portance than  any  corporeal  contact  with  the  Body  of 
Christ;  and  that  this  communion  is  shared  in  through 
faith.  These  thoughts  had  been  taken  over  by  Christopher 
Honius,  a  divine  of  the  Netherlands,  who  had  enforced 
them  by  insisting  that  our  Lord's  discourse  in  the  6  th 
chapter  of  St.  John's  Gospel  had  reproved  any  materialistic 
conception  of  the  Lord's  Supper;  and  that  therefore  the 
words  of  the  institution  must  not  be  taken  in  their  rigid 
literal  meaning.  He  had  been  the  first  to  suggest  that 
the  word  is  in  "This  is  My  Body"  must  mean  signifies. 
Wessel  and  Honius  were  the  predecessors  of  Zwingli,  and 


356        FROM   SPEYER,    1526,    TO    AUGSBURG,    1556 

he  wove  their  thoughts  into  his  doctrine  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  It  should  be  remembered  that  Luther  had  also 
been  acquainted  with  the  labours  of  Wessel  and  of  Honius, 
and  that  so  far  from  attracting  they  had  repelled  him, 
simply  because  he  thought  they  failed  to  give  the  respect 
due  to  the  literal  meaning  of  the  words  of  the  institution. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Luther  knew  Zwingli 
only  as  in  some  way  connected  with  Andrew  Bodenstein 
of  Carlstadt.  Carlstadt  had  professed  to  accept  the  theoiy 
of  Honius  about  the  nature  of  the  relation  of  the  Presence 
of  Christ  to  the  elements  of  Bread  and  Wine — saying  that 
the  latter  were  signs,  and  nothing  more,  of  the  former.  A 
controversy  soon  raged  in  Wittenberg  to  the  scandal  of 
German  Protestantism.  Luther  insisted  more  and  more  on 
the  necessity  of  the  Presence  in  the  elements  of  the  Body 
of  Christ  "  corporeally  extended  in  space  " ;  while  Carlstadt 
denied  that  Presence  in  any  sense  whatsoever.  Luther 
insisted  with  all  the  strength  of  language  at  his  command 
that  the  literal  sense  of  the  words  of  the  institution  must 
be  preserved,  and  that  the  words  "  This  is  My  Body " 
must  refer  to  the  Bread  and  to  the  Wine ;  while  Carlstadt 
thought  it  was  more  likely  that  while  using  the  words  our 
Lord  pointed  to  His  own  Body,  or  if  not,  that  religious 
conviction  compelled  another  interpretation  than  the  one 
on  which  Luther  insisted. 

The  dust  of  all  this  controversy  was  in  the  eyes  of 
the  theologians  when  they  met  at  Marburg,  and  prevented 
them  carefully  examining  each  other's  doctrinal  positirtL 
In  all  essential  matters  Luther  and  Zwingli  were  not  so  far 
apart  as  each  supposed  the  other  to  be.  Their  respective 
theories,  put  very  shortly,  may  be  thus  summed  up. 

Zwingli,  looking  mainly  at  the  mediaeval  doctrine  of 
the  Mass,  taught:  (1)  The  Lord's  Supper  is  not  a  repetition 
of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  on  the  Cross,  but  a  commemoration 
of  that  sacrifice  once  offered  up ;  and  the  elements  are 
not  a  newly  offered  Christ,  but  the  signs  of  the  Body  and 
Blood  of  the  Christ  who  was  once  for  all  offered  on  Cal- 
vary.   (2)  That  forgiveness  for  sin  is  not  won  by  partaking 


THE   DOCTRINE   OF   THE    EUCHARIST  357 

in  a  newly  offered  Christ,  but  by  hclieving  in  a  Christ  once 
offered  up.  (3)  That  the  benefits  of  the  work  of  Christ 
are  always  appropriated  by  faith,  and  that  the  atonement 
is  so  appropriated  in  the  sacrament,  whereby  Christ  be- 
comes our  food  ;  but  the  food,  being  neither  carnal  nor 
corporeal,  is  not  appropriated  by  the  mouth,  but  by  faith 
indwelling  in  the  soul.  Therefore  there  is  a  Eeal  Presence 
of  Christ  in  the  sacrament,  but  it  is  a  spiritual  Presence, 
not  a  corporeal  one.  A  real  and  living  faith  always 
involves  the  union  of  the  believer  with  Christ,  and  there- 
fore the  Eeal  Presence  of  Christ ;  and  the  Presence  of 
Christ,  which  is  in  every  act  of  faith,  is  in  the  sacrament 
to  the  faithful  partaker.  (4)  That  while  the  Lord's  Supper 
primarily  refers  to  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  and  while  the 
elements.  Bread  and  Wine,  are  the  symbols  of  the  crucified 
Body  of  Christ,  the  partaking  of  the  elements  is  also  a 
symbol  and  pledge  of  an  ever-renewed  living  union  with 
the  Eisen  Christ.  (5)  That  as  our  Lord  Himself  has 
specially  warned  His  followers  against  thinking  of  feeding 
on  Him  in  any  corporeal  or  carnal  manner  (John  vi.),  the 
words  of  the  institution  cannot  be  taken  in  a  strictly  literal 
fashion,  and  the  phrase  "  This  is  My  Body  "  means  "  This 
signifies  My  Body."  The  fourth  position  had  been  rather 
implicitly  held  than  explicitly  stated. 

Luther,  looking  mainly  at  the  mediaeval  doctrine  of  the 
Eucharist  ^.aught :  (1)  That  the  primary  use  of  the  sacra- 
ment was  to  bring  believing  communicants  into  direct 
touch  with  the  Living  Eisen  Christ.  (2)  That  to  this  end 
there  must  be  in  the  Bread  and  Wine  the  local  Presence 
of  the  Glorified  Body  of  Christ,  which  he  always  conceived 
as  "  body  extended  in  space  " ;  the  communicants,  coming 
into  touch  with  this  Body  of  Christ,  have  communion  with 
Him,  such  as  His  disciples  had  on  earth  and  as  His  saints 
now  have  in  heaven.  (3)  That  this  local  Presence  of 
Christ  does  not  presuppose  any  special  priestly  miracle,  for, 
in  virtue  of  its  ubiquity,  the  Glorified  Body  of  Christ  is 
everywhere  naturally,  and  therefore  is  in  the  Bread  and  in 
the  Wine  ;  this  natural  Presence  becomes  a   sacramental 


358  FROM    SPEYER,    1626,    TO    ATGSBURG,    166fi 

Presence  because  of  the  promise  of  God  attached  to  the  re- 
verent and  believing  partaking  of  the  sacrament.  (4)  That 
communion  with  the  Living  Kisen  Christ  implies  the 
appropriation  of  the  Death  of  Christ,  and  of  the  Atonement 
won  by  this  death;  but  this  last  thought  of  Luther's, 
which  is  Zwingli's  first  thought,  lies  implicitly  in  his 
teaching  without  being  dwelt  upon. 

The  two  theories,  so  far  as  doctrinal  teaching  goes, 
are  supplementary  to  each  other  rather  than  antagonists. 
Each  has  a  weak  point.  Luther's  depends  on  a  question- 
able mediaeval  idea  of  uhiquity,  and  Zwingli's  on  a  somewhat 
shallow  exegesis.  It  was  imfortunate,  but  only  natural, 
that  when  the  two  theological  leaders  were  brought  together 
at  Marburg,  instead  of  seeking  the  mutual  points  of  agree- 
ment, each  should  attack  the  weak  point  in  the  other's 
theory.  Luther  began  by  chalking  the  words  Hoc  est 
Corpus  Meum  on  the  table  before  him,  and  by  saying,  "  I 
take  these  words  literally ;  if  anyone  does  not,  I  shall  not 
argue  but  contradict " ;  and  Zwingli  spent  all  his  argumen- 
tative powers  in  disputing  the  doctrine  of  ubiquity.  The 
long  debate  went  circling  round  these  two  points  and  could 
never  be  got  away  from  them.  Zwingli  maintained  that 
the  Body  of  Christ  was  at  the  Right  Hand  of  God,  and 
could  not  be  present,  extended  in  space,  in  the  elements, 
which  were  signs  representing  what  was  absent.  Luther 
argued  that  the  Body  of  Christ  was  in  the  elements,  as,  to 
use  his  own  illustration,  the  sword  is  present  in  the  sheath. 
As  a  soldier  could  present  his  sheathed  sword  and  say, 
truly  and  literally.  This  is  my  sword,  although  nothing  but 
the  sheath  was  visible ;  so,  although  nothing  could  be  seen 
or  felt  but  Bread  and  Wine,  these  elements  in  the  Holy 
Supper  could  be  literally  and  truly  called  the  Body  and 
Blood  of  Christ. 

The  substantial  harmony  revealed  in  the  fourteen 
articles  which  they  all  could  sign  showed  that  the  Germans 
and  the  Swiss  had  one  faith.  But  Luther  insisted  that 
their  difference  on  the  Sacrament  of  the  Supper  pre- 
vented  them  becoming  one   visible  brotherhood,  and  the 


THE   EMPEROR   IN   GERMANY  359 

immediate  purpose  of  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse   was  not 
fulfilled. 

Undaunted  by  his  defeat,  Philip  next  attempted  a  less 
comprehensive  union.  If  Luther  and  Zwingli  could  not  be 
included  within  the  one  brotherhood,  might  not  the  German 
cities  of  the  south  and  the  Lutheran  princes  be  brought 
together  ?  Another  conference  was  arranged  at  SchwabasJi 
(October  1529),  when  a  series  of  theological  articles  were 
to  be  presented  for  agreement.  LutHer  prepared  seventeen 
articles  to  be  set  before  the  conference.  They  were  based 
on  the  Marburg  Articles;  but  as  Luther  had  stated  his 
own  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Supper  in  its  most  uncompro- 
mising form,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  delegates 
from  the  southern  cities  hesitated  to  sign.  They  said  that 
the  confession  (for  the  articles  took  that  form)  was  not  in 
conformity  with  the  doctrines  preached  among  them,  and 
that  they  would  need  to  consult  their  fellow-citizens  before 
committing  them  to  it.  Thus  Philip's  attempts  to  unite 
the  Protestants  of  Germany  failed  a  second  time,  and  a 
divided  Protestantism  awaited  the  coming  of  the  Emperor, 
who  had  resolved  to  solve  the  religious  difficulty  in  person. 

§  5.   The  Emperor  in  Germany, 

Charles  v.  was  at  the  zenith  of  his  power.  The  sickly 
looking  youth  of  Worms  liad  become  a  grave  man  of 
thirty,  whose  nine  years  of  unbroken  success  had  made  him 
the  most  commanding  figure  in  Europe.  He  had  quelled 
the  turbulent  Spaniards  ;  he  had  crushed  his  brilliant  rival 
of  France  at  the  battle  of  Pavia ;  he  had  humbled  the  Pope, 
and  had  taught  His  Holiness  in  the  Sack  of  Kome  the 
danger  of  defying  the  Head  of  the  Holy  Eoman  Empire ; 
and  he  had  compelled  the  reluctant  Pontiff  to  invest  him 
with  the  imperial  crown.  He  had  added  to  and  con- 
solidated the  family  possessions  of  the  House  of  Hapsburg, 
and  but  lately  his  brother  Ferdinand  had  won,  in  name  at 
least,  the  crowns  of  Bohemia  and  Hungary.  He  was  now 
determined  to  visit  Germany,  and  by  his  personal  presence 


360        PROM   SPEYER,    1626,    TO   AUGSBURG,    1665 

and  influence  to  end  the  religious  difficulty  which  was 
distracting  that  portion  of  his  vast  dominions.  He  also 
meant  to  secure  the  succession  to  the  Empire  for  his 
brother  Ferdinand,  by  procuring  his  election  as  King  of  the 
Komans. 

Charles  came  from  Italy  over  the  Brenner  Pass  in  the 
spring  time,  and  was  magnificently  received  by  the  Tyrolese, 
eager  to  do  all  honour  to  the  grandson  of  their  beloved 
Kaiser  Max.  His  letters  to  his  brother,  written  on  the 
stages  of  the  journey,  reveal  as  fully  as  that  reserved  soul 
could  unbosom  itself,  his  plans  for  the  pacification  of 
Germany.  He  meant  to  use  every  persuasion  possible, 
to  make  what  compromises  his  conscience  permitted  (for 
Catholicism  was  a  faith  with  Charles),  to  effect  a  peaceful 
settlement.  But  if  these  failed,  he  was  determined  to 
crush  the  Eeformation  by  force.  He  never  seems  to  have 
doubted  that  he  would  succeed.  Never  a  thought  crossed 
his  mind  that  he  was  about  to  encounter  a  great  spiritual 
force  whose  depth  and  intensity  he  was  unable  to  measure, 
and  which  was  slowly  creating  a  new  world  unknown  to 
himself  and  to  his  contemporaries.  While  at  Innsbruck  he 
invited  the  Elector  of  Saxony  to  visit  him,  and  was  some- 
what disappointed  that  the  Lutheran  prince  did  not 
accept ;  but  this  foretaste  of  trouble  did  not  give  him  any 
uneasiness. 

The  summons  to  the  Diet,  commanding  the  Electors, 
'princes,  and  all  the  Estates  of  the  Empire  to  meet  at 
Augsburg  on  the  8th  of  April  1530,  had  been  issued  when 
Charles  was  at  Bologna.  No  threats  marred  the  invitation. 
The  Emperor  announced  that  he  meant  to  leave  all  past 
errors  to  the  judgment  of  the  Saviour ;  that  he  wished  to 
give  a  charitable  hearing  to  every  man's  opinions,  thoughts, 
and  ideas ;  and  that  his  only  desire  was  to  secure  that  all 
might  live  under  the  one  Christ,  in  one  Commonwealth, 
one  Church,  and  one  Unity.^  He  left  Innsbruck  on  the 
^th  of  June,  and,  travelling  slowly,  reached  the  bridge  on 

*  ScMrrmacher,   Brief e  und  Acten  zu  der   Geschichte  des  Eeligionsge- 
$prdc7ie3  zu  Marburg  wnd  des  Beichstages  zu  Augsburg,  1530,  pp.  33,  34. 


THE    EMPEROR   IN    GERMANY  361 

the  Lech,  a  little  distance  from  Augsbuig,  on  the  evening 
of  the  ISth.  There  he  found  the  great  princes  of  the 
Empire,  who  had  been  waiting  his  arrival  from  two  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon.  They  alighted  to  do  him  reverence,  and 
he  graciously  dismounted  also,  and  greeted  them  with  all 
courtesy.  Charles  had  brought  the  papal  nuncio.  Cardinal 
Campeggio,  in  his  train.  Most  of  the  Electors  knelt  to 
receive  the  cardinal's  blessing  ;  but  John  of  Saxony  stood 
bolt  upright,  and  refused  the  proffered  benediction. 

The  procession — one  of  the  most  gorgeous  Germany 
had  ever  seen — was  marshalled  for  the  ceremonial  entry 
into  the  town.  The  retinues  of  the  Electors  were  all  in 
tlieir  appropriate  colours  and  arms — Saxony,  by  ancient 
prescriptive  right,  leading  the  van.  Then  came  the 
Emperor  alone,  a  baldachino  carried  over  his  head.  He 
had  wished  the  nuncio  and  his  brother  to  ride  beside  him 
under  the  canopy ;  but  the  Germans  would  not  suffer  it ; 
no  Pope's  representative  was  to  be  permitted  to  ride 
shoulder  Lo  shoulder  with  the  head  of  the  German  Empire 
entering  the  most  important  of  his  imperial  cities.^ 
,  Augsburg  was  then  at  the  height  of  its  prosperity. 
It  was  the  great  trading  centre  between  Italy  and  the 
Levant  and  the  towns  of  Northern  Europe.  It  was  the 
home  of  the  Welsers  and  of  the  Fuggers,  the  great  capitalists 
of  the  later  mediaeval  Europe.  It  boasted  that  its  citizens 
were  the  equals  of  princes,  and  that  its  daughters,  in  that 
age  of  deeply  rooted  class  distinctions,  had  married  into 
princely  houses.  To  this  day  the  name  of  one  of  its  streets 
— Philippine  Welser  Strasse — commemorates  the  wedding 
of  an  heiress  of  the  Welsers  with  an  archduke  of  Austria ; 
and  the  wall  decorations  of  the  old  houses  attest  the 
ancient  magnificence  of  the  city.* 

At  the  gates  of  the  town,  the  clergy,  singing  Advenisti 

*  There  are  several  contemporary  accounts  of  this  meeting  at  the  bridge 
of  the  Lech,  and  of  the  procession  ;  for  one,  see  Schirrmacher,  Briefe  und 
Aden,  etc.  pp.  54-57. 

*  It  was  a  somewhat  doubtful  honour  for  a  city  to  be  chosen  as  the  meet- 
ing  place  of  a  Diet.  The  burghers  of  Augsburg  hired  2000  landsknechts  to 
piotect  them  during  ihe  session  (Schirrmacher,  Brieft  und  Aden,  p.  52). 


362  FROM    SPEYER,    1526,    tO   AUGSBURG,    1666 

dcsidcrahilis,  met  the  procession.  All,  Emperor,  clergy, 
princes,  and  their  retinues,  entered  the  cathedral.  The 
Te  Deum  was  sung,  and  the  Emperor  received  the  benedic- 
tion. Then  the  procession  was  re-formed,  and  accompanied 
Charles  to  his  lodgings  in  the  Bishop's  Palace. 
J  There  the  Emperor  made  his  first  attempt  on  his 
'  Lutheran  subjects.  He  invited  tlie  Elector  of  Saxony, 
George  of  Brandenburg,  Philip  of  Hesse,  and  Francis  of 
Liineburg  to  accompany  him  to  his  private  apartments. 
He  told  them  that  he  had  been  informed  that  they  had 
brought  their  Lutheran  preachers  with  them  to  Augsburg, 
and  that  he  would  expect  them  to  keep  them  silent  during 
the  sittings  of  the  Diet.  They  refused.  Then  Charles 
asked  them  to  prohibit  controversial  sermons.  This  request 
was  also  refused.  In  the  end  Charles  reminded  them  that 
his  demand  was  strictly  within  the  decision  of  1526  ;  that 
the  Emperor  was  lord  over  the  imperial  cities;  and  he 
promised  them  that  he  would  appoint  the  preachers  himself, 
and  that  there  would  be  no  sermons — only  the  reading  of 
Scripture  without  comment.  This  was  agreed  to.  He 
next  asked  them  to  join  him  in  the  Corpus  Christi  proces- 
sion on  the  following  day.  They  refused — Philip  of  Hesse 
with  arguments  listened  to  by  Ferdinand  with  indignation, 
and  by  Charles  with  indifference,  probably  because  he  did 
not  understand  German.  The  Emperor  insisted.  Then 
/iC^  old  George  of  Brandenburg  stood  forth,  and  told  His 
Majesty  that  he  could  not,  and  would  not  obey.  It  was  a 
short,  rugged  speech,  though  eminently  respectful,  and 
ended  with  these  words,  which  flew  over  Germany,  kindling 
hearts  as  fire  lights  flax  :  "  Before  I  would  deny  my  God 
and  His  Evangel,  I  would  rather  kneel  down  here  before 
your  Majesty  and  have  my  head  struck  off," — and  the 
old  man  hit  the  side  of  his  neck  with  the  edge  of  his  hand. 
Charles  did  not  need  to  know  German  to  understand. 
"  Not  head  off,  dear  prince,  not  head  off,"  he  said  kindly  in 
his  Flemish-German  {Nit  Kop  ah,  lover  Forst,  nit  Kop  ah). 
Charles  walked  in  procession  through  the  streets  of  Augs- 
burg on  a  blazing  hot  day,  stooping  under  a  heavy  purple 


THE   DIET   OF    AUGSBURG  S63 

mantle,  with  a  superfluous  candle  sputtering  in  his  hand; 
but  the  evangelical  princes  remained  in  their  lodgings.^ 


§  6.  The  Diet  of  Augsburg  1530} 

The  Diet  was  formally  opened  on  June  20th  (1530), 
and  in  the  Proposition  or  Speech  from  the  Throne  it  was 
announced  that  the  Assembly  would  be  invited  to  discuss 
armament  against  the  Turk,  and  that  His  Majesty  was 
anxious,  "  by  fair  and  gentle  means,"  to  end  the  religious 
differences  which  were  distracting  Germany.  The  Pro- 
testants were  again  invited  to  give  the  Emperor  in  writing 
their  opinions  and  difficulties.  It  was  resolved  to  take 
the  religious  question  first.  On  June  24th  the  Lutherans 
were  ready  with  their  "  statement  of  their  grievances  and 
opinions  relating  to  the  faith."  Next  day  (June  25th)  the 
Diet  met  in  the  hall  of  the  Episcopal  Palace,  and  what  is 
known  as  the  Augsburg  Confession  was  read  by  the  Saxon 
Chancellor,  Dr.  Christian  Bayer,  in  such  a  clear  resonant 
voice  that  it  was  heard  not  only  by  the  audience  within 
the  chamber,  but  also  by  the  crowd  which  thronged  the 
court  outside.*  When  the  reading  was  ended.  Chancellor 
Briick  handed  the  document  and  a  duplicate  in  Latin  to 
the  Emperor.  They  were  signed  by  the  Elector  of  Saxony 
and  his  son  John  Frederick,  by  George,  Margrave  of 
Brandenburg,  the  Dukes  Ernest  and  Francis  of  Llineburg, 
the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  Prince  Wolfgang  of  Anhalt,  and 
the  delegates  of  the  cities  of  Niirnberg  and  Reutlingen. 
These  princes  knew  the  danger  which  threatened  them  in 
putting  their  names  to  the  Confession.  The  theologians 
of  Saxony  besought  their  Elector  to  permit  their  names 

»  Forstemann,  Urkundenhueh,  etc.  i.  268,  271 ;  Schimnacher,  Briefe  wnd 
Aden,  etc.  p.  59  and  note. 

2  Sources  :  Schirrmacher,  Briefe  und  Aden  ;  Forstemann,  Urkunden- 
hueh zu  der  Geschichfe  des  Reichstags  zu  Augsburg,  2  vols.  (Halle,  1833- 
1835) ;  and  Archivfiir  die  Geschichte  der  kirchl.  Reformation  (Halle,  1831). 

Later  Books  :  Moritz  Facius,  Geschichte  des  Reichstags  zu  Augsburg 
(Leipzig,  1830). 

'  Schirnnacher,  BrUfe  und  Aden,  etc.  p.  90. 


364        FROM    SPEYER,    152G,    TO    AUGSBURG,    1655 

to  stand  alone ;  but  he  answered  calmly,  /,  too,  will  confesf, 
my  Christ.  He  was  not  a  brilliant  man  like  Philip  of 
Hesse.  He  was  unpretentious,  peace-loving,  and  retiring 
by  nature — John  the  Steadfast,  his  people  called  him. 
Recent  historians  have  dwelt  on  the  conciliatory  attitude 
and  judicial  spirit  manifested  by  the  Emperor  at  this  Diet, 
and  they  are  justified  in  doing  so ;  but  the  mailed  hand 
sometimes  showed  itself.  Charles  refused  to  invest  John 
with  his  Electoral  dignities  in  the  usual  feudal  fashion, 
and  his  entourage  whispered  that  if  the  Elector  was  not 
amenable  to  the  Emperor's  arguments,  he  might  find  the 
electorate  taken  from  him  and  bestowed  on  the  kindred 
House  of  Ducal  Saxony,  which  in  the  person  of  Duke 
George  so  stoutly  supported  the  old  religion.^  While 
possessing  that  "  laudable,  if  crabbed  constitutionalism 
which  was  the  hereditary  quality  of  the  Ernestine  line  of 
Saxony,"*  he  had  a  genuine  affection  for  the  Emperor. 
Both  recognised  that  this  Diet  of  Augsburg  had  separated 
them  irrevocably.  "  Uncle,  Uncle,"  said  Charles  to  Elector 
John  at  their  parting  interview,  "  I  did  not  expect  this 
from  you."  The  Elector's  eyes  filled  with  tears ;  he  could 
not  speak ;  he  turned  away  in  silence  and  left  the  city  soon 
afterwards.* 

§  7.   The  Atcgsburg  Confession^ 

The  Augsburg  Confession  (Confessio  Augustana)  was 
what  it  claimed  to  be,  a  statement  of  "  opinion  and  griev- 
ances," and  does  not  pretend  to  be  a  full  exposition  of 
doctrinal  tenets.  The  men  who  wrote  it  (Melanchthon 
was  responsible  for  the  phraseology)  and  presented  it  to 

*  The  threat  is  recorded  in  Arehiv  filr  Schweizerisehe  Oeschichte  und 
Landeskunde,  i.  278. 

2  Armstrong,  The  Emperor  Charles  F.,  i.  244. 
'  Forstemann,  Arehiv,  p.  206. 

*  Schaff,  The  Creeds  of  the  Evangelical  Protestant  Christian  Churches 
(London,  1877),  p.  3 ;  cf.  History  of  the  Greeds  of  Christendom  (London, 
1877),  pp.  220  ff.;  Tschakert,  Die  Augshurgische  Konfession  (Leipzig, 
1901). 


THE   AUGSBURG   CONFESSION  365 

the  Diet,  claimed  to  belong  to  the  ancient  and  visible 
Catholic  Church,  and  to  believe  in  all  the  articles  of  faith 
set  forth  by  the  Universal  Church,  and  particularly  in  the 
Apostles'  and  Nicene  Creeds',  but  they  iDaintained  that 
abuses  had  crept  in  which  obscured  the  ancient  doctrines. 
The  Confession  showed  why  they  could  not  remain  in  con- 
nection with  an  unreformod  Church.  Their  position  is 
exactly  defined  in  the  opening  sentence  of  the  second  part 
of  the  Confession.  "  Inasmuch  as  the  Churches  among  us 
dissent  in  no  articles  of  faith  from  the  Holy  Scriptures 
nor  the  Church  Catholic,  and  only  omit  a  few  of  certain 
abuses,  which  are  novel,  and  have  crept  in  with  time  partly 
and  in  part  have  been  introduced  by  violence,  and  contrary 
to  the  purport  of  the  canons,  we  beg  that  your  Imperial 
Majesty  would  clemently  hear  both  what  ought  to  be 
changed,  and  what  are  the  reasons  why  people  ought  not 
to  be  forced  against  their  conscience  to  observe  these  abuses." 
The  Confession  is  often  represented  as  an  attempt  to 
minimise  the  differences  between  Lutherans  and  Eomanists 
and  exaggerate  those  between  Lutherans  and  Zwinglians, 
and  there  are  some  grounds  for  the  statement.  Melanchthon 
had  come  back  from  the  Diet  of  Speyer  (1529)  convinced 
that  if  the  Lutherans  had  separated  themselves  more 
thoroughly  from  the  cities  of  South  Germany  there  would 
have  been  more  chance  of  a  working  compromise,  and  it 
is  only  natural  to  expect  that  the  idea  should  colour  his 
sketch  of  the  Lutheran  position  at  Augsburg.  Yet  in  the 
main  the  assertion  is  wrong.  The  distinctively  Protestant 
conception  of  the  spiritual  priesthood  of  all  believers  in- 
spires the  whole  document ;  and  this  can  never  be  brought 
into  real  harmony  with  the  Eomauist  position  and  claims. 
It  is  not  difficult  to  state  Eomanist  and  Protestant  doc- 
trine in  almost  identical  phrases,  provided  this  one  great 
dogmatic  difference  be  for  the  moment  set  on  one  side. 
The  conferences  at  Ilegensburgin  1541  (April  27-May  22) 
proved  as  much.  No  one  will  believe  that  Calvin  would  be 
inclined  to  minimise  the  dilierences  between  Protestants  and 
Eomanists,  yet  he  voluntarily  signed  the  Augsburg  Con- 


366        FROM    SPEYER,    1626,    TO    AUGSBURG,    1666 

fession,  and  did  so,  he  says,  in  the  sense  in  which  the 
author  (Melanchthon)  understood  it.  This  Augsburg  Con- 
fession and  Luther's  Short  Catechism  are  the  symbolical 
books  still  in  use  in  all  Lutheran  churches. 

The  Augsburg  Confession  {Confessio  Augustana)  is 
divided  into  two  parts,  the  first  expressing  the  views  held 
by  those  who  signed  it,  and  the  second  stating  the  errora 
they  protested  against.  The  form  and  language  alike 
show  that  the  authors  had  no  intention  of  framing  an 
exhaustive  syllabus  of  theological  opinions  or  of  imposing 
its  articles  as  a  changeless  system  of  dogmatic  truth 
They  simply  meant  to  express  what  they  united  in  be* 
lieving.  Such  phrases  as  our  Churches  tecuch,  it  is  taught, 
such  and  such  opinions  are  falsely  attributed  to  us,  make 
that  plain.  In  the  first  part  the  authors  show  how  much 
they  hold  in  common  with  the  mediaeval  Church  ;  how  they 
abide  by  the  teaching  of  St.  Augustine,  the  great  theo- 
logian of  the  West ;  how  they  differ  from  more  radical 
Protestants  like  the  Zwinglians,  and  repudiate  the  teachings 
of  the  Anabaptists.  The  Lutheran  doctrine  of  Justification 
by  Faith  is  given  very  clearly  and  briefly  in  a  section  by 
itself,  but  it  is  continually  referred  to  and  shown  to  be 
the  basis  of  many  portions  of  their  common  system  of 
belief.  In  the  second  part  they  state  what  things  compel 
them  to  dissent  from  the  views  and  practices  of  the 
mediaeval  Church — the  enforced  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  the 
sacrificial  character  of  the  Mass,  the  necessity  of  auricular 
confession,  monastic  vows,  and  the  confusion  of  spiritual 
and  secular  authority  exhibited  in  the  German  episcopate. 

The  origin  of  the  document  was  thin.  When  the 
Emperor's  proclamation  summoning  the  Uiet  reached 
Saxony,  Chancellor  Gregory  Briick  suggested  that  the 
Saxon  theologians  should  prepare  a  statement  of  theii 
opinions  which  might  be  presented  to  the  Emperor  if 
called  for.^     This  was  done.     The  theologians  went  to  the 

*  Forsteraann,  Urkundenbueh,  i.  39  :  the  worthy  Chancellor  thought  that 
the  document  should  be  drafted  "mit  griindlicher  bewerung  derselbigcn  am 
gottlicher  schrifft. " 


THE  AUGSBURG   CONFESSION  367 

Schwabach  Articles,  and  Melanchthon  revised  them,  re- 
stated them,  and  made  them  as  inoffensive  as  he  could. 
The  document  was  meant  to  give  the  minimum  for  which 
the  Protestants  contended,  and  Melanchthon's  concilia- 
tory spirit  shows  itself  throughout.  It  embalms  at  the 
same  time  some  of  Luther's  trenchant  phrases :  "  Chris- 
tian perfection  is  this,  to  fear  God  sincerely ;  and  again,  to 
conceive  great  faith,  and  to  trust  assuredly  that  God  is 
pacified  towards  us  for  Christ's  sake ;  to  ask,  and  certainly 
to  look  for,  help  from  God  in  all  our  affairs  according  to 
our  calling ;  and  outwardly  to  do  good  works  diligently, 
and  to  attend  to  our  vocation.  In  these  things  doth  true 
perfection  and  the  true  worship  of  God  consist :  it  doth  not 
consist  in  being  unmarried,  in  going  about  begging,  nor  in 
wearing  dirty  clothea"  His  indifference  to  forms  of 
Church  government  and  his  readiness  to  conserve  the  old 
appears  in  the  sentence :  "  Now  our  meaning  is  not  to  have 
rule  taken  from  the  bishops ;  but  this  one  thing  only  is 
reqiiested  at  their  hands,  that  they  would  suffer  the  gospel 
to  be  purely  taught,  and  that  they  would  relax  a  few 
observances,  which  cannot  be  observed  without  sin." 
I  When  the  Eomanist  theologians  presented  their  Con- 
Jfutation  of  this  Confession  to  the  Emperor,  it  was  again 
{left  ^0  Melanchthon  to  draft  an  answer — the  Apology  of 
I  the  Atogshurg  Confession.  The  Apology  is  about  seven 
tim«s  longer  than  the  Confession,  and  is  a  noble  and 
learned  document.  The  Emperor  refused  to  receive  it, 
and  Melanchthon  spent  a  long  time  over  it  before  it  was 
allowed  to  be  seen. 

I  After  taking  counsel  with  the  Romanist  princes  (die 
jChur  und  Fursten  so  hepstisch  gewesen)}  it  was  resolved  to 
I  hand  the  Confession  to  a  committee  of  Romanist  theo- 
^  logians  whom  the  cardinal  nuncio  ^  undertook  to  bring  to- 

*  Schirrmacher,  Briefe  und  Aden,  etc.  p.  98. 

*  Charles  knew  well  that  the  nuncio  would  exert  all  his  influence  to 
prevent  a  settlement.  In  anticipation  of  the  Diet  the  Emperor  had 
privately  asked  Melanchthon  to  give  him  a  statement  of  the  minimum  of 
concessions  which  would  content  the  Lutherans.  Melanchthon  seems  to 
have  answered  (our  source  of  information  is  not  very  definite) :  the  Eucharist 


368        FROM    SPEYER,    1526,   TO   AUGSBURG,    155h 

gether,  to  examine  and  answer  it.  Among  them  were  John 
Eck  of  Ingolstadt,  Faber,  and  Cochl?eus.  There  was  little 
hope  of  arriving  at  a  compromise  with  such  champions 
on  the  papal  side ;  and  Charles  was  soon  to  discover  that 
his  strongest  opponents  in  effecting  a  peaceful  solution  were 
the  nuncio  and  his  c(»mniittee  of  theologians.  Five  times 
they  produced  a  confutation,  and  five  times  the  Emperor 
and  the  Diet  returned  their  work,  asking  them  to  redraft  it 
in  milder  and  in  less  uncompromising  terms.^  The  sixth 
draft  went  far  beyond  the  wishes  of  Charles,  but  the 
Emperor  had  to  accept  it  and  let  it  appear  as  the  state- 
ment of  his  beliefs.      It  made  reconciliation  hopeless. 

§  8.  The  Reformation  to  he  crushed. 

The  religious  difficulty  had  not  been  removed  by  com- 
promise. There  remained  force  —  the  other  alternative 
foreshadowed  by  the  Emperor.  The  time  seemed  to  be 
opportune.  Protestantism  was  divided,  and  had  flaunted 
its  differences  in  the  Emperor's  presence.  Philip  of  Hesse 
had  signed  the  Augsburg  Confession  with  hesitation,  not 
because  he  did  not  believe  its  statements,  but  because  it 
•seemed  to  shut  the  door  on  a  complete  union  among  all 
the  parties  who  had  joined  in  the  Protest  of  1529.  The 
four  cities  of  Strassburg,  Constance,  Lindau,  and  Mem- 
mingen  had  submitted  a  separate  Confession  (the  Confessio 
Tetrapolitana)  to  the  Emperor;  and  the  Eomanist  theo- 
logians had  written  a  confutation  of  it  also.  Zwingli 
had  sent  a  third. 
I        Luther  was  not  among  the  theologians  present  at  the 

in  both  kinds  ;  marriage  of  priests  permitted  ;  the  omission  of  the  canon  of 
the  Mass  ;  concession  of  the  Church  lands  already  sequestrated  ;  and  the 
decision  of  the  other  matters  in  dispute  at  a  free  General  Council.  Charles 
had  sent  the  document  to  Rome  ;  it  had  been  debated  at  a  conclave  of 
cardinals,  who  had  decided  that  none  of  the  demands  could  be  granted, 

^  One  document  says  :  **  Es  war  aber  zum  ersten  die  covfutation  wol  bey 
zweihundert  und  achtzig  bletter  lang  gewesen,  aber  die  key.  Miij.  hat  sie 
selbst  also  gereuttert  und  gerobt,  das  es  nicht  inehr  dcnu  zwolf  bletter 
geblieben  sind.  Solchs  soil  Doctor  Eck  sehr  verdjossea  und  wee  getli&u 
haben." — (Schirrraacher,  Briefe  und  Aden,  etc.  p.  167.) 


THE  REFORMATION  TO  BE  CRUSHED      869 

!  Diet  of  Augsburg.  Technically  he  was  still  an  outlaw,  for 
the  ban  of  the  Diet  of  Worms  had  never  been  legally 
removed.  The  Elector  had  asked  him  to  stay  at  his  Castle 
of  Coburg.  There  he  remained,  worried  and  anxious,  chafing 
like  a  caged  eagle.  He  feared  that  Melanchthon's  con- 
ciliatory spirit  might  make  him  barter  away  some  in- 
dispensable parts  of  evangelical  trutli ;  he  feared  the 
impetuosity  of  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse  and  his  known 
Zwinglian  sympathies.  His  secretary  wTote  to  Wittenberg 
that  he  was  fretting  himself  ill ;  he  was  longing  to  get 
back  to  Wittenberg,  where  he  could  at  least  teach  his 
students.  It  was  then  that  Catharine  got  their  friend 
Lucas  Cranach  to  paint  their  little  daughter  Magdalena, 
just  twelve  months  old,  and  sent  it  to  her  husband  that  he 
might  have  a  small  bit  of  home  to  cheer  him.  Luther 
hung  the  picture  up  where  he  could  always  see  it  from  his 
chair,  and  he  tells  us  that  the  sweet  little  face  looking 
down  upon  him  gave  him  courage  during  his  dreary  months 
of  waiting.  Posts  brought  him  news  from  the  Diet :  that 
the  Confession  had  been  read  to  the  Estates ;  that  the 
Komanists  were  preparing  a  Confutation ;  that  their  reply 
was  ready  on  August  3rd ;  that  Philip  of  Hesse  had  left 
the  Diet  abruptly  on  the  6  th,  to  raise  troops  to  fight  the 
Emperor,  it  was  reported;  that  Melanchthon  was  being 
entangled  in  conferences,  and  was  giving  up  everything. 
His  strong  ardent  nature  pours  itself  forth  in  his  letters 
from  Coburg  (April  18th-0ct.  4th) — urging  his  friends  to 
tell  him  how  matters  are  going ;  warning  Melanchthon  to 
stand  firm ;  taking  comfort  in  the  text,  "  Be  ye  angry,  and 
sin  not " ;  comparing  the  Diet  to  the  rooks  and  the  rookery 
in  the  trees  below  his  window.^  It  was  from  Coburg  that 
he  wrote  his  charming  letter  to  his  small  son.^  It  was  there 
that  he  penned  the  letter  of  encouragement  to  the  tried 
and  loyal  Chancellor  Briick : 

"  I  have  lately  seen  two  wonders :  the  first  as  I  was 
looking  out  of  my  window  and  saw  the  .stars  in  heaven  and 
all  that  beautiful  vault  of  God,  and  yet  I  saw  no  pillars  on 
»  De  Wette,  Luther's  Brief e,  etc.  iv.  1-182.  2  /jj^  j^  4^^ 

24* 


370        FROM   SPEYER,    1526,    TO   AUGSBURG,    1666 

which  the  Master-Builder  had  fixed  this  vault;  yet  the 
heavens  fell  not,  and  the  great  vault  stood  fast.  Now  there 
are  some  who  search  for  the  pillars,  and  want  to  touch  and 
to  grasp  them  ;  and  when  they  cannot,  they  wonder  and 
tremble  as  if  the  heaven  must  certainly  fall,  just  because 
they  cannot  grasp  its  pillars.  If  they  could  only  lay  their 
hands  on  them,  they  think  that  the  heaven  would  stand 
firm! 

"  The  second  wonder  was :  I  saw  great  clouds  rolling  over 
us  with  such  a  ponderous  weight  that  they  seemed  like  a 
great  ocean,  and  yet  I  saw  no  foundation  on  which  they 
rested  or  were  based,  and  no  shore  which  bounded  them ; 
yet  they  fell  not,  but  frowned  on  us  and  flowed  on.  But 
when  they  had  passed  by,  then  there  shone  forth  both  their 
floor  and  our  roof,  which  had  kept  them  back — a  rainbow ! 
A  frail,  thin  floor  and  roof  which  soon  melted  into  the 
clouds,  and  was  more  like  a  shadowy  prism,  such  as  we  see 
through  coloured  glass,  than  a  strong,  firm  foundation, 
and  we  might  well  distrust  the  feeble  rampart  which  kept 
back  that  fearful  weight  of  waters.  Yet  we  found  that  this 
unsubstantial  prism  was  able  to  bear  up  the  weight  of 
waters,  and  that  it  guarded  us  safely  !  But  there  are  some 
who  look  more  to  the  thickness  and  massive  weight  of  the 
waters  and  the  clouds  than  at  this  thin,  light,  narrow  bow 
of  promise.  They  would  like  to  feel  the  strength  of  that 
shadowy  vanishing  arch,  and  because  they  cannot  do  this, 
they  are  always  fearing  that  the  clouds  will  bring  back  the 
flood."  1 

The  Protestants  never  seemed  to  be  in  a  worse  plight ; 
but,  as  Luther  wrote,  the  threatened  troubles  passed  away 
— for  this  time  at  least. 

Campeggio  was  keen  to  crush  the  Eeformation  at  once. 
His  letters  to  the  Curia  insist  that  the  policy  of  the  strong 
arm  is  the  only  effectual  way  of  dealing  with  the  Lutheran 
princes.  But  Charles  found  that  some  of  the  South  German 
princes  who  were  eager  that  no  compromise  should  be  made 
with  the  Lutherans,  were  very  unwilKng  to  coerce  them  by 
force  of  arms.  They  had  no  wish  to  see  the  Emperor  all- 
powerful  in  Germany.  The  Eomanist  Dukes  of  Bavaria  (the 
Wittelsbachs)  were  as  strongly  anti-Hapsburg  as  Philip  of 

1  De  Wette,  Luther's  BrUfe,  etc.  iv.  128. 


THE  REFORMATION  TO  BE  CRUSHED     371 

Hesse  himself ;  and  Charles  had  no  desire  to  stir  the  anti- 
Hapsburg  feeling.  Instead,  conferences  ^  were  proposed  to 
see  whether  some  mutual  understanding  might  not  after  all 
be  reached ;  and  the  Diet  was  careful  to  introduce  laymen, 
in  the  hope  that  they  would  be  less  uncompromising  than 
the  Komanist  theologians.  The  meetings  ended  without 
any  definite  result.  The  Protestant  princes  refused  to 
make  the  needful  concessions,  and  Charles  found  his  plans 
thwarted  on  every  side.  Whereupon  the  Eomanist  majority 
of  the  Diet  framed  a  "recess,"  which  declared  that  the 
Protestants  were  to  be  allowed  to  exist  unmolested  until 
April  15  th,  1531;  and  were  then  to  be  put  down  by 
force.  Meanwhile  they  were  ordered  to  make  no  more 
innovations  in  worship  or  in  doctrine ;  they  were  to  refrain 
from  molesting  the  Eomanists  within  their  territories ;  and 
they  were  to  aid  the  Emperor  and  the  Eomanist  princes  in 
stamping  out  the  partisans  of  Zwingli  and  the  Anabaptists. 
This  resolution  gave  rise  to  a  second  Protest,  signed  by  the 
Lutheran  princes  and  by  the  fourteen  cities. 

Nothing  had  stirred  the  wrath  of  Charles  so  much  as 
the  determined  stand  taken  by  the  cities.  He  conceived 
that  he,  the  Emperor,  was  the  supreme  Lord  within  an 
imperial  city ;  and  he  employed  persuasion  and  threats  to 
make  their  delegates  accept  the  "  recess."  Even  Augsburg 
refused. 

J  Having  made  their  Protest,  the  Lutheran  princes  and 
the  delegates  from  the  protesting  towns  left  the  Diet, 
careless  of  what  the  Eomanist  majority  might  further  do. 
In  their  absence  an  important  ordinance  was  passed.  The 
Diet  decided  that  the  Edict  of  Worms  was  to  be  executed ; 
that  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdictions  were  to  be  preserved, 

*  The  whole  time  of  the  members  of  the  Diet  was  not  spent  in  theo- 
logical discussions.  We  read  of  banquets,  where  Lutherans  and  Romanists 
sat  side  by  side ;  of  dances  that  went  on  far  into  the  night ;  of  what  may 
be  called  ft  garden  party  in  a  "fair  meadow,"  where  a  wooden  house  was 
built  for  the  accommodation  of  the  ladies  ;  and  of  tournaments.  At  one  of 
them,  Ferdinand,  the  Emperor's  brother,  was  thrown  and  his  horse  rolled 
over  him  ;  and  Melauchthon  wrote  to  Luther  that  six  men  had  been  killed 
at  one  of  these  "gentle  and  joyous  "  passages  of  arms. 


372        FROM   SPEYER,    1626,   10   ADGSBURG,    1556 

and  all  Church  property  to  be  restored ;  and,  what  was 
most  important,  that  the  Imperial  Court  of  Appeals  for  all 
disputed  legal  cases  within  the  Empire  (the  EeichsJcammers- 
gericht)  should  be  restored.  The  last  provision  indicated 
a  new  way  of  fighting  the  extending  Protestantism  by 
harassing  legal  prosecutions,  which,  from  the  nature  of  the 
court,  were  always  to  be  decided  against  the  dissenters  from 
the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  of  the  mediaeval  Empire.^  All 
instances  of  seizure  of  ecclesiastical  benefices,  all  defiances 
of  episcopal  decisions,  could  be  appealed  against  to  this 
central  court ;  and  as  the  legal  principles  on  which  it  gave 
its  decisions  and  the  controlling  authorities  which  it  re- 
cognised were  mediaeval,  the  Protestants  could  never  hope 
for  a  decision  in  their  favour.  The  Lutheran  Church  in 
Saxony,  for  example,  with  its  pastors  and  schoolmasters, 
was  supported  by  moneys  taken  from  the  old  ecclesiastical 
foundations.  According  to  this  decision  of  the  Diet,  every 
case  of  such  transfer  of  property  could  be  appealed  to  this 
central  court,  which  from  its  constitution  was  bound  to 
decide  against  the  transfer.  If  the  Protestant  princes 
disregarded  the  decisions  of  the  central  court,  the  Emperor 
was  within  his  rights  in  treating  them  as  men  who  had 
outraged  the  constitution  of  the  Empire.^ 

Charles  met  at  Augsburg  the  first  great  check  in  his 
hitherto  successful  career,  but  he  was  tenacious  of  purpose, 
and  never  cared  to  hurry  matters  to  an  irrevocable  con- 
clusion. He  carefully  studied  the  problem,  and  three  ways 
of  dealing  with  the  rehgious  diflQculty  shaped  themselves 
in  his  mind  at  Augsburg — by  compromise,  by  letting  the 
Protestants  alone  for  a  period  longer  or  shorter,  and  by 
a  General  Council  which  would  be  free.     It  would  seem 

*  The  Romanist  majority  had  resolved  to  fight  the  Protestant  minority, 
not  in  the  battlefield,  but  in  the  law-courts — nicht  fechten  sondem  rechten, 
was  the  phrase. 

2  When  the  religious  war  did  begin  in  1545,  Charles  justified  the  use  of 
force  on  the  grounds  that  the  Elector  of  Saxony  and  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse 
had  violated  the  constitution  of  the  Empire,  had  repudiated  the  decisions  of 
the  lleichskammffragericht,  and  had  protested  against  the  decisions  of  the 
Diet. 


THE   SCHMALKALD    LEAGUE  373 

that  at  Augsburg  he  first  seriously  resolved  that  the  condi- 
tion of  Europe  was  such  that  the  Pope  must  be  compelled 
to  summon  a  Council,  and  to  allow  it  freedom  of  debate 
and  action.  Charles  tried  all  three  plans  in  Germany 
during  the  fifteen  years  that  followed. 


§  9.   The  Schmalhald  League} 

I  The  Emperor  published  the  decision  of  the  Diet  on  the 
19th  of  November,  and  the  Protestants  had  to  arrange 
some  common  plan  of  facing  the  situation.  They  met, 
princes  and  delegates  of  cities,  in  the  little  upland  town 
of  Schmalkalden,  lying  on  the  south-west  frontier  of  Elec- 
toral Saxony,  circled  by  low  hills  which  were  white  with 
snow  (December  22-31).  They  had  to  face  at  once 
harassing  litigation,  and,  after  the  15tb  of  April,  the  threat 
that  they  would  be  stamped  out  by  force  of  arms.  Were 
they  still  to  maintain  their  doctrine  of  passive  resistance  ? 
The  question  was  earnestly  debated.  Think  of  these  earnest 
German  princes  and  burghers,  their  lives  and  property  at 
stake,  debating  this  abstract  question  day  after  day,  resolute 
to  set  their  own  consciences  right  before  coming  to  any 
resolution  to  defend  themselves !  The  lawyers  were  all  on 
the  side  of  active  defence.  The  terms  of  the  bond  were 
drafted.  The  Emperor's  name  was  carefully  omitted ;  and 
the  causes  which  compelled  them  to  take  action  were  rather 
alluded  to  vaguely  than  stated  with  precision.  The  Elector 
of  Saxony,  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  the  Duke  of  Liineburg, 
the  Prince  of  An  halt,  the  two  Counts  of  Mansfeld,  and  the 
delegates  from  Magdeburg  and  Bremen  signed.  Pious  old 
George  of  Brandenburg  was  not  convinced  that  it  was 
lawful  to  resist  the  Emperor;  the  deputies  of  Niirnberg 
had  grave  doubts  also.  Many  others  who  were  present  felt 
that  they  must  have  time  to  make  up  their  minds.  But  the 
league  was  started,  and  was  soon  to  assume  huge  proportions. 

*  Schmidt,  Zur  Oeschichte  des  Schmalkaldischen  Bundes  {Forsch.  zwr  DetU- 
§chen  GeschiehU,  xxv.);  Zangemeister,  Die  Schmalkaldischen  Artikel  um 
16S7  (Heidelberg,  1883)  ;  Corpus  Reformatorum,  iii.  973  ff. 


374        FROM    SPEYER,    1526,    TO    AUGSBURG,    1565 

The  confederates  had  confessed  the  new  doctrines,  and 
had  published  their  Confession.  They  now  resolved  that 
they  would  defend  themselves  if  attacked  by  litigation  or 
otherwisa  There  was  no  attempt  to  exclude  the  South 
German  cities ;  and  Charles'  expectations  that  theological 
differences  would  prevent  Protestant  union  within  Germany 
were  frustrated.  ZwingU's  heroic  death  at  Cappel  (October 
11th,  1531)  softened  all  Protestant  hearts  towards  his 
followers.  The  South  German  cities  followed  the  lead 
of  Bucer,  who  was  anxious  for  union.  Many  of  these 
towns  now  joined  the  Schmalkald  League.  Brunswick 
joined.  Hamburg  and  Rostock  in  the  far  north,  Goslar 
and  Gottingen  in  the  centre,  joined.  Almost  all  North 
Germany  and  the  more  important  imperial  towns  in 
the  South  were  united  in  one  strong  confederacy  by  this 
Schmalkald  League.  It  became  one  of  the  European  Powers. 
Denmark  wished  to  join.  Thomas  Cromwell  was  anxious 
that  England  should  join.  The  league  was  necessarily 
anti-Hapsburg,  and  the  Emperor  had  to  reckon  with  it. 

Its  power  appeared  at  the  Diet  of  Nlirnberg  in  1532. 
The  dreaded  day  (April  15th,  1531)  on  which  the  Pro- 
testants were  to  be  reduced  by  fire  and  sword  passed  quietly 
by.  Charles  was  surrounded  with  difficulties  which  made 
it  impossible  for  him  to  carry  out  the  threats  he  had 
published  on  November  19th,  1530.  The  Turks  were 
menacing  Vienna  and  the  Duchy  of  Austria;  the  Pope 
was  ready  to  take  advantage  of  any  signs  of  imperial 
weakness ;  France  was  irreconcilable ;  England  was  hostile ; 
and  the  Bavarian  dukes  were  doing  what  they  could  to 
lessen  the  Hapsburg  power  in  Germany. 

When  the  Diet  met  at  Niirnberg  in  1532,  the  Emperor 
knew  that  he  was  unable  to  coerce  the  Lutherans,  and 
returned  to  his  earlier  courteous  way  of  treating  them. 
They  were  more  patriotic  than  the  German  Romanists  for 
whom  he  had  done  so  much.  Luther  declared  roundly 
that  the  Turks  must  be  met  and  driven  back,  and  that  all 
Germans  must  support  the  Emperor  in  repelling  the  in- 
vasion.    At  the  Diet  a  "  recess  "  was  proposed,  in  which  the 


THE   SCHMALKALD    LEAGUE  375 

religious  truce  was  indefinitely  extended ;  the  processes 
against  the  Protestants  in  the  Beichskammersjericht  were  to 
be  quashed,  and  no  State  was  to  be  proceeded  against  in 
matters  arising  out  of  rehgious  differences.  The  Komanist 
members  refused  to  accept  it ;  the  "  recess  "  was  never  pub- 
lished. But  the  l^rotestant  States  declared  that  they  would 
trust  in  the  imperial  word  of  honour,  and  furnished  the 
Emperor  with  troops  for  the  defence  of  Vienna,  and  the 
invasion  was  repelled. 

The  history  of  the  struggle  in  Germany  between  the 
Diet  of  1532  and  the  outbreak  of  war  in  1546  is  very 
intricate,  and  cannot  be  told  as  a  simple  contest  between 
Heformation  and  anti-Eeformation. 

In  the  sixteenth  century,  almost  all  thoughtful  and 
earnest-minded  men  desired  a  Eeformation  of  the  Church. 
The  Eoman  Curia  was  the  only  opponent  to  all  reforms  of 
any  kind.  But  two  different  ideas  of  what  Eeformation 
ought  to  be,  divided  the  men  who  longed  for  reforms. 
The  one  desired  to  see  the  benumbed  and  formalist 
mediaeval  Church  filled  with  a  new  religious  life,  while 
it  retained  its  notable  characteristics  of  a  sacerdotal 
ministry  and  a  visible  external  unity  under  a  uniform 
hierarchy  culminating  in  the  Papacy.  The  other  wished 
to  free  the  human  spirit  from  the  fetters  of  a  merely 
ecclesiastical  authority,  and  to  rebuild  the  Church  on  the 
principle  of  the  spiritual  priesthood  of  all  believing  men 
and  women.  In  the  struggle  in  Germany  the  Emperor 
Charles  may  be  taken  as  the  embodiment  of  the  first,  as 
Luther  represented  the  second.  To  the  one  it  seemed 
essential  to  maintain  the  external  unity  and  authority  of 
the  Church  according  to  the  mediaeval  ideal ;  the  other 
could  content  himself  with  seeing  the  Church  of  the 
Middle  Ages  broken  up  into  territorial  Churches,  each  of 
which  he  contended  was  a  portion  of  the  one  visible  Catholic 
Church.  Charles  had  no  difficulty  in  accepting  many 
changes  in  doctrine  and  usages,  provided  a  genuine  and 
lasting  compromise  could  be  arrived  at  which  would  retain 
all  within  the  one  ecclesiastical  organisation.      He  con- 


376        FROM    SPEYER,    152G,    TO    AUGSBURG,    1666 

sented  onee  and  again  to  suspend  the  struggle ;  but  he 
would  never  have  made  himself  responsible  for  a  permanent 
religious  settlement  which  recognised  the  Lutheran  Churches. 
He  had  no  objection  to  a  truce,  but  would  never  accept  a 
lasting  peace.  If  the  Lutherans  could  not  be  brought  back 
within  the  mediaeval  Church  by  compromise,  then  he  was 
prepared  to  go  to  all  extremes  to  compel  them  to  return. 
Of  course,  he  was  the  ruler  over  many  lands ;  he  was  keen 
to  extend  and  consolidate  the  family  possessions  of  hia 
House, — as  keen  as  the  most  grasping  of  the  petty  territorial 
princes, — and  he  had  to  be  an  opportunist.  But  he  never 
deviated  in  the  main  from  his  idea  of  how  the  religious 
difficulty  should  be  solved. 

But  all  manner  of  political  and  personal  motives  were 
at  work  on  both  sides  in  Germany  (as  elsewhere).  Philip 
of  Hesse  combined  a  strenuous  acceptance  of  the  principles 
of  the  Lutheran  Eeformation  with  as  thorough  a  hatred  of 
the  House  of  Hapsburg  and  of  its  supremacy  in  Germany. 
The  Dukes  of  Bavaria,  who  were  the  strongest  partisans  of 
the  Eomanist  Church  in  Germany,  were  the  hereditary 
enemies  of  the  House  of  Austria.  The  religious  pacifica- 
tion of  the  Fatherland  was  made  impossible  to  Charles, 
not  merely  by  his  insistence  on  maintaining  the  conceptions 
of  the  mediaeval  Church,  but  also  by  open  and  secret 
reluctance  to  see  the  imperial  authority  increased,  and 
by  jealousies  aroused  by  the  territorial  aggrandisement 
of  the  House  of  Hapsburg.  The  incompatibility  be- 
tween the  aims  of  the  Emperor  and  those  of  his 
indispensable  ally,  the  Pope,  added  to  the  difficulties  of 
the  situation. 

In  1534,  Philip  of  Hesse  persuaded  the  Schmalkald 
League  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  banished  Duke  of 
Wlirtemberg.  His  territories  had  been  incorporated  into 
the  family  possessions  of  the  Hapsburgs,  and  the  people 
groaned  under  the  imperial  administration.  The  Swabian 
League,  which  had  been  the  mainstay  of  the  Imperialist 
and  Eomanist  cause  in  South  Germany,  was  persuaded  to 
remain  neutral  by  the  Dukes  of  Bavaria,  and  Philip  had 


THE  WITTENBERG  CONCORD         377 

little  difficulty  in  defeating  Ferdinand,  and  driving  the 
Imperialists  out  of  the  Duchy.  Ulrich  was  restored, 
declared  in  favour  of  the  Lutheran  Keformation,  and 
Wiirtemberg  was  added  to  the  list  of  Protestant  States. 
By  the  terms  of  the  Peace  of  Cadan  (June  1534), 
Ferdinand  publicly  engaged  to  carry  out  Charles*  private 
assurance  that  no  Protestant  was  to  be  dragged  before  the 
Beichskammersgericht  for  anything  connected  with  religion.^ 
Another  important  consequence  followed.  The  Swabian 
League  was  dissolved  in  1536.  This  left  the  Schmalkald 
League  of  Protestant  States  and  cities  the  only  formidable 
confederation  in  Germany. 

The  political  union  among  the  Protestants  suggested  a 
closer  approximation.  The  South  German  pastors  asked 
to  meet  Luther  and  discuss  their  theological  differences. 
They  met  at  Wittenberg,  and  after  prolonged  discussion  it 
was  found  that  all  were  agreed  save  on  one  small  point — 
the  presence,  extended  in  space,  of  the  Body  of  Christ  in  the 
elements  in  the  Holy  Supper.  It  was  agreed  that  this 
might  be  left  an  open  question ;  and  what  was  called 
the  Wittenberg  Concord  was  signed,  which  united  all 
German  Protestants  (May  and  June   1536).* 

Three  years  later  (1539),  Duke  George  of  Saxony  died, 
the  most  honest  and  disinterested  of  the  Eomanist  princes. 
His  brother  Henry,  who  succeeded  him,  with  the  joyful 
consent  of  his  subjects,  pronounced  for  the  Evangelical 
faith.  Nothing  would  content  him  but  that  Luther  should 
come  to  Leipzig  to  preside  clerically  on  so  auspicious  an 
occasion.  Luther  preached  in  the  great  hall  of  the  Castle, 
where  twenty  years  earlier  he  had  confronted  Eck,  and 
had  heard  Duke  George  declare  that  his  opinions  were 
pestilential. 

In  the  same  year  the  new  Elector  of  Brandenburg  also 
came  over  to  the  Evangelical  side  amid  the  rejoicings  of 
his  people ;  and  the  two  great  Eomanist  States  of  North 

^  Winckelmann,   *'  Die  Vertrage  von  Kadan  und  Wien  "  {Zeitachrift  fikr 
KirchtngeschichU,  xi.  212  ff.). 

«  Cf.  Kolde,  Analecta,  pp.  216  ff.,  231  f.,  262  f.,  278  f.,  eta. 


378        FROM    SPEYER,    1526,    TO    AUGSBURG     1556 

Germany,  Electoral  Brandenburg  and  Ducal  Saxony,  became 
Protestant. 

The  tide  flowed  so  strongly  tbat  the  three  clerical 
■Electors,  the  Archbishops  of  Mainz,  Koln,  and  Trier,  and 
some  of  the  bishops,  contemplated  secularising  their 
principalities,  and  becoming  Protestants.  This  alarmed 
Charles  thoroughly.  If  the  proposed  secularisation  took 
place,  there  would  be  a  large  Protestant  majority  in  the 
Electoral  College,  and  the  next  Emperor  would  be  a 
Protestant. 

Charles  had  been  anxiously  watching  the  gradual 
decadence  of  the  power  of  the  Romanist  princes  in 
Germany ;  and  reports  convinced  him  that  the  advance 
of  the  Reformation  among  the  people  was  still  more 
marked.  The  Eoman  Catholic  Church  seemed  to  be  in 
the  agonies  of  dissolution  even  in  places  where  it  had 
hitherto  been  strong.  Breslau,  once  strongly  Eomanist, 
was  now  almost  fanatically  Lutheran ;  in  Vienna,  Bishop 
Faber  wrote,  the  population  was  entirely  Lutheran,  save 
himself  and  the  Archduke.  The  Eomanist  Universities 
were  almost  devoid  of  students.  In  Bavaria,  it  was  said 
that  there  were  more  monasteries  than  monks.  Candidates 
for  the  priesthood  had  diminished  in  a  very  startling  way 
the  nuncio  Vergerio  reported  that  he  could  find  none  in 
Bohemia  except  a  few  paupers  who  could  not  pay  theii 
ordination  fees. 

I  The  pohcy  of  the  Pope  (Paul  IIL,  1534-1549)  had 
'  disgusted  the  German  Eomanist  princes.  He  subordinated 
the  welfare  of  the  Church  in  their  dominions  to  his  anti- 
Hapsburg  Italian  schemes,  and  had  actually  allied  himself 
with  Francis  of  France,  who  was  intriguing  with  the  Turks, 
in  order  to  thwart  the  Emperor !  The  action  and  speeches 
of  Henry  viii.  had  been  watched  and  studied  by  the 
German  Eomanist  leaders.  Could  they  not  imitate  him 
in  Germany,  and  create  a  Nationalist  Church  true  to 
mediaeval  doctrine,  hierarchy,  and  ritual,  and  yet  inde- 
pendent of  the  Pope,  who  cared  so  little  for  them  ? 

All  these  things  made  Charles  and  Ferdinand  revise 


TRUCE   WITH   THE   PROTESTANTS  379 

fcheir  policy.  The  Emperor  began  to  consider  seriously 
whether  the  way  out  of  the  religious  difficulty  might  not 
be,  either  to  grant  a  prolonged  truce  to  the  Lutherans 
(which  might,  though  he  hoped  not,  become  permanent), 
or  to  work  energetically  for  the  creation  of  a  German 
National  Church,  which,  by  means  of  some  working  com- 
promise in  doctrines  and  ceremonies,  might  be  called  into 
existence  by  a  German  National  Council  assembled  in 
defiance  of  the  Pope. 

It  was  with  these  thoughts  in  his  mind  that  he  sent 
his  Chancellor  Held  into  Germany  to  strengthen  the 
Eomanist  cause  there.  His  agent  soon  abandoned  the 
larger  ideas  of  his  master,  if  he  ever  comprehended  them, 
and  contented  himself  with  announcing  publicly  that  the 
private  promise  given  by  Charles  at  Nurnberg,  and 
confirmed  by  Ferdinand  at  the  Peace  of  Cadan,  was 
withdrawn.  The  lawsuits  brought  against  the  Protestants 
in  the  Reichshammersgericht  were  not  to  be  quashed,  but 
were  to  be  prosecuted  to  the  bitter  end.  He  also  con- 
trived at  Nurnberg  (June  1538)  to  form  a  league  of 
Romanist  princes,  ostensibly  for  defence,  but  really  to 
force  the  Protestants  to  submit  to  the  decisions  of  the 
jEeichskammersgericht.  These  measures  did  not  make  for 
peace ;  they  almost  produced  a  civil  war,  which  was  only 
avoided  by  the  direct  interposition  of  the  Emperor. 

Chancellor  Held  was  recalled,  and  the  Emperor  sent 
the  Archbishop  of  Lund  to  find  out  what  terms  the 
Protestants  would  accept.  These  proved  larger  than  the 
Emperor  could  grant,  but  the  result  of  the  intercourse 
was  that  the  Protestants  were  granted  a  truce  which  was 
to  last  for  ten  years. 

1  The  proposed  secularisation  of  the  ecclesiastical  Elec- 
torates made  Charles  see  that  he  dared  not  wait  for  the 
conclusion  of  this  truce.  He  set  himself  earnestly  to 
discover  whether  compromises  in  doctrine  and  ceremonies 
were  not  possible.  Conferences  were  held  between  Lutheran 
and  Eomanist  theologians  and  laymen,  at  Hagenau  (June 
1540),  at  Worms  (November  1540),  and  at  Regensburg 


380        FROM    SPEYER,    1526,    TO    AUGSBURG,    1555 

(Ratisbon,  April  1541).^  The  last  was  the  most  im- 
portant. The  discussions  showed  that  it  was  possible 
to  state  Eomanist  and  Lutheran  doctrine  in  ambiguous 
propositions  which  could  be  accepted  by  the  theologians  of 
both  Confessions ;  but  that  there  was  a  great  gulf  between 
them  which  the  Evangelicals  would  never  re-cross.  The 
spiritual  priesthood  of  all  believers  could  never  be  reconciled 
with  the  special  priesthood  of  the  mediseval  clergy.  This 
was  Charles*  last  attempt  at  a  compromise  which  would 
unite  of  their  own  free  will  the  German  Lutherans  with 
the  German  Eomanists.  He  saw  that  the  Lutherans  would 
never  return  to  the  mediaeval  Church  unless  compelled 
by  force,  and  it  was  impossible  to  use  force  unless  the 
Schmalkald  League  was  broken  up  altogether  or  seamed 
with  divisions. 


§  1 0.   The  Bigamy  of  Philip  of  E'esse* 

The  opportunity  arrived.  The  triumphant  Protestantism 
received  its  severest  blow  in  the  bigamy  of  Philip  of  Hesse, 
which  involved  the  reputations  of  Bucer,  Luther,  and 
Melanchthon,  as  well  as  of  the  Landgrave. 

Philip  had  married  when  barely  nineteen  a  daughter 
of  Duke  George  of  Saxony.  Latterly,  he  declared  that  it 
was  impossible  to  maintain  conjugal  relations  with  her; 
that  continence  was  impossible  for  him ;  that  the  condi- 
tion in  which  he  found  himself  harassed  his  whole  life,  and 
prevented  him  coming  to  the  Lord's  Table.  In  a  case  like 
his,  Pope  Clement  vii.  only  a  few  years  previously  had 
permitted  the  husband  to  take  a  second  wife,  and  why 
should   not    the    Protestant   divines    permit    him  ?       He 

*  Spiegel,  "Johannes  Timannua  AmsteH)damu3  und  die  Colloquien  zu 
Worms  und  Regensburg,  1540-1541"  {Zeitschrift  filr  hist.  Theologie,  xlii. 
(1872)  86fF.) ;  Moses,  Die  Eeligionsverhandlungen  in  Ragenau  und  Worms, 
1540-16U  (Jena,  1889). 

'  Heppe,  **  Urkundliche  Beitrage  zur  Geschichte  der  Doppelehe  des  Land- 
grafen  Philip  v.  Hessen "  {Zeitschrift  fur  die  historische  Theologie,  xxii. 
(1852)  263  flf.),  cf.  xxxviii.  445  ft".  ;  Schultze,  Luther  und  die  Doppelehe  des 
Landgrafen  v.  Hessen  (Paderboru  (1869)). 


THE    BIGAMY    OF   PHILIP   OF   HESSE  381 

prepared  a  case  for  himself  which  he  submitted  to  the 
theologians,  and  got  a  reply  signed  by  Bucer,  Melan.hthon, 
and  Luther,  which  may  be  thus  summarised ; — 

According  to  the  original  commandment  of  God,  marriage 
is  between  one  man  and  one  woman,  and  the  twain  shall 
become  one  flesh,  and  this  original  precept  has  been  con- 
firmed by  our  Lord;  but  sin  brought  it  about  that  first 
Lamech,  then  the  heathen,  and  then  Abraham,  took  more 
than  one  wife,  and  this  was  permitted  by  the  law.  We  are 
now  living  under  the  gospel,  which  does  not  give  prescribed 
rules  for  the  regulation  of  the  external  life,  and  it  has  not 
expressly  prohibited  bigamy.  The  existing  law  of  the  land 
has  gone  back  to  the  original  requirement  of  God,  and  the 
plain  duty  of  the  pastorate  is  to  insist  on  that  original 
requirement  of  God,  and  to  denounce  bigamy  in  every  way. 
Nevertheless  the  pastorate,  in  individual  cases  of  the  direst 
need,  and  to  prevent  worse,  may  sanction  bigamy  in  a  purely 
exceptional  way ;  such  a  bigamous  marriage  is  a  true 
marriage  (the  necessity  being  proved)  in  the  sight  of  God 
and  of  conscience ;  but  it  is  not  a  true  marriage  with  refer- 
ence to  public  law  or  custom.  Therefore  such  a  marriage 
ought  to  be  kept  secret,  and  the  dispensation  which  is  given 
for  it  ought  to  be  kept  under  the  seal  of  confession.  If  it 
be  made  known,  the  dispensation  becomes  eo  ipso  invalid, 
and  the  marriage  becomes  mere  concubinage. 

Such  was  the  strange  and  scandalous  document  to  which 
Luther,  Melanchthon,  and  Bucer  appended  their  names. 

Of  course  the  thing  could  not  be  kept  secret,  and 
the  moral  effect  of  the  revelation  was  disastrous  among 
friends  and  foes.  The  Evangelical  princes  were  especially 
aggrieved ;  and  it  was  proposed  that  the  Landgrave  should 
be  tried  for  bigamy  and  punished  according  to  the  laws  of 
the  Empire.  When  the  matter  was  brought  before  the 
Emperor,  he  decided  that  no  marriage  had  taken  place, 
and  the  sole  effect  of  the  decision  of  the  theologians  was 
to  deceive  a  poor  maiden.^ 

*  Luther's  action  is  usually  attributed  to  his  desire  not  to  offend  a 
powerful  Protestant  leader.  A  careful  study  of  the  original  documents 
in  the  case— correspondence  and  pa])ers — does  not  confirm  this  view.  To 
my  mind,  they  show  on  Luther's  part  a  somewhat  sullen  and  crabbed  con- 


382        FROM    SPEYER,    1526,    TO   AUGSBURG,    1556 

Philip,  humiliated  and  sore,  isolated  from  his  friends, 
was  an  instrument  ready  to  the  Emperor's  hand  in  his  plan 
to  weaken  and,  if  possible,  destroy  the  Schmalkald  League. 
The  opportunity  soon  arrived.  The  father  of  William 
Duke  of  Cleves  Juliers  and  Berg  had  been  elected  by 
the  Estates  of  Guelders  to  be  their  sovereign,  in  defiance 
of  a  treaty  which  had  secured  the  succession  to  Charles. 
The  father  died,  and  the  son  succeeded  almost  imme- 
diately after  the  treaty  had  been  signed.  This  created 
a  powerful  anti-Hapsburg  State  in  close  proximity  to  the 
Emperor's  possessions  in  the  Netherlands.  William  of 
Cleves  had  married  his  sister  Sibylla  to  John  Frederick, 
the  Elector  of  Saxony,  and  naturally  gravitated  towards 
the  Schmalkald  League.  In  1541  an  arrangement  was 
come  to  between  the  Emperor  and  Philip,  according  to 
which  Philip  guaranteed  to  prevent  the  Duke  of  Cleves 
from  joining  the  League,  or  at  least  from  being  supported 
by  it  against  the  Emperor,  and  in  return  Philip  was  pro- 
mised indemnity  for  all  past  deeds,  and  advancement  in 
the  Emperor's  service.  Young  Maurice  of  Ducal  Saxony, 
who  had  succeeded  his  father  in  the  Duchy  (August  18th, 
1541),  and  had  married  Philip's  daughter,  also  joined  in 
this  bargain.  The  Emperor  had  thus  divided  the  great 
Protestant  League ;  for  the  Elector  of  Saxony  refused  to 
desert  his  brother-in-law.  In  1543  the  Emperor  fell 
upon  the  unbefriended  Duke,  totally  defeated  him,  and 
took  Guelders  from  him,  while  the   German  Protestants, 

scientious  fidelity  to  a  conviction  which  he  always  maintained.  With  all 
his  reverence  for  the  word  of  God,  he  could  never  avoid  giving  a  very  large 
authority  to  the  traditions  of  the  Church  when  they  did  not  plainly  contra- 
dict a  positive  and  direct  divine  commandment.  The  Church  had  been 
accustomed  to  say  that  it  possessed  a  dispensing  power  in  matrimonial  cases 
of  extreme  difficulty  ;  and,  in  spite  of  his  denunciations  of  the  dispensations 
granted  by  the  Roman  Curia,  Luther  never  denied  the  power.  On  the 
contrary,  he  thought  honestly  that  the  Church  did  possess  this  power  of 
dispensation  even  to  the  length  of  tampering  with  a  fundamental  law  of 
Christian  society,  provided  it  did  not  contradict  a  positive  scriptural 
commandment  to  the  contrary.  The  crime  of  the  Curia,  in  his  eyes,  was 
not  issuing  dispensations  in  necessary  caseSf  but  in  giving  them  in  cases 
without  proved  necessity,  and/or  money. 


THE    COUNCIL   OF   TRENT  383 

hindered  by  Philip,  saw  one  of  their  most  important  alhes 
overthrown.  This  gave  rise  to  recriminations,  which  effectu- 
ally weakened  the  Protestant  cause. 

!  In  1544,  Charles  concluded  a  peace  with  France  (the 
[Peace  of  Cr^py,  November  19th),  and  was  free  to  turn  his 
attention  to  affairs  in  Germany.  He  forced  the  Pope  in  the 
same  month  to  give  way  about  a  General  Council,  which 
was  fixed  to  meet  in  March  1545.  The  Emperor  meant 
this  Council  to  be  an  instrument  in  his  hands  to  subdue 
both  the  Protestants  and  the  Pope.  He  meant  it  to 
reform  the  Church  in  the  sense  of  freeing  it  from  many  of 
the  corruptions  which  had  found  their  way  into  it,  and 
especially  in  diminishing  the  power  of  the  Roman  Curia ; 
and  in  this  he  was  supported  by  the  Spanish  bishops  and 
by  the  greater  part  of  Latin  Christendom.  But  the  Pope 
was  the  more  skilful  diplomatist,  and  out-generalled  the 
Emperor.  The  Council  was  summoned  to  meet  at  Trent, 
a  purely  Italian  town,  though  nominally  within  Germany. 
It  was  arranged  that  all  its  members  must  be  present 
personally  and  not  by  deputies,  which  meant  that  the 
Italian  bishops  had  a  permanent  majority ;  and  the  choice 
of  Dominicans  and  Jesuits  as  the  leading  theologians  made 
it  plain  that  no  doctrinal  concessions  would  be  made  to  the 
Protestants.  From  the  first  the  Protestants  refused  to  be 
bound  in  any  way  by  its  decisions,  and  Charles  soon  per- 
ceived that  the  instrument  he  had  counted  on  had  broken 
in  his  hands.  If  ecclesiastical  unity  was  to  be  maintained 
in  Germany,  it  could  only  be  by  the  use  of  force.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  the  Emperor  was  loath  to  proceed  to  this 
last  extremity ;  but  his  correspondence  with  his  sister 
Mary  and  with  his  brother  Ferdinand  shows  that  he  had 
come  to  regard  it  as  a  necessity  by  the  middle  of  1545. 

His  first  endeavour  was  to  break  up  the  Protestant 
League,  which  was  once  more  united.  He  attempted  again 
to  detach  Philip  of  Hesse,  but  without  success.  He  was 
able,  however,  to  induce  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg  and 
the  Margrave  of  Brandenburg-Culmbach  and  some  others  to 
remain  neutral — the  Elector  by  promising  in   any  event 


384        FROM   SPEYER,    1626,   TO   AUGSBURG,    1655 

fchat  the  religious  settlement  which  had  been  effected  in 
Brandenburg  (1541)  should  remain  unaltered;  and,  what 
served  him  best,  he  persuaded  young  Maurice  of  Ducal 
Saxony  to  become  his  active  ally. 

§  11.  Maurice  of  Saocony, 

Maurice  of  Saxony  was  one  of  the  most  interesting, 
because  one  of  the  most  perplexing  personalities  of  his 
time,  which  was  rich  in  interesting  personalities.  He  was  a 
Protestant  from  conviction,  and  never  wavered  from  his 
faith ;  yet  in  the  conflict  between  the  Komanist  Emperor 
and  the  Protestant  princes  he  took  the  Emperor's  side,  and 
contributed  more  than  any  one  else  to  the  overthrow  of  his 
fellow  Protestants.  His  bargain  with  Charles  was  that  the 
Electorate  should  be  transferred  from  the  Ernestine  Saxon 
family  to  his  own,  the  Albertine,  that  he  should  get  Magde- 
burg and  Halberstadt,  and  that  neither  he  nor  his  people 
should  be  subject  to  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent. 
Then,  when  he  had  despoiled  the  rival  family  of  the 
Electorate,  he  planned  and  carried  through  the  successful 
revolt  of  the  Protestant  princes  against  the  Emperor,  and 
was  mainly  instrumental  in  securing  the  public  recognition 
of  Lutheranism  in  Germany  and  in  gaining  the  permanent 
Religious  Peace  of  1555.^ 

§  12.  Luther's  Death, 

It  was  in  these  months,  while  the  alarms  of  war  were 
threatening  Germany,  that  Luther  passed  away.     He  had 

^  Ranke  has  an  interesting  study  of  the  character  of  Maurice  in  hig 
Deutsche  Geschichte  im  Zeitalter  der  Reformation,  bk.  ix.  chap.  vi.  (vol.  v. 
pp.  161  ff.  of  the  6th  ed.,  Leipzig,  1882) ;  but  perhaps  the  best  is  given  in 
Maurenbrecher,  Studien  und  SMzzen  zur  Geschichte  der  Beformationszei^ 
(Leipzig,  1874),  pp.  135  ff.  A  man's  deep  religious  convictions  can  tolerate 
strange  company  in  most  ages,  and  the  fact  that  we  find  Romanist  champions 
in  France  plunging  into  the  deepest  profligacy  the  one  week  and  then  under- 
going the  agonies  of  repentance  the  next,  or  that  Lutheran  leaders  combined 
occasional  conjugal  infidelities  and  drinking  bouts  with  zeal  for  evangelical 
principles,  demands  deeper  study  in  psychology  than  can  find  expression,  in 
the  f&shion  of  some  modern  English  historians,  in  a  few  cheap  sneers. 


Luther's  death  885 

been  growing  weaker  year  by  year,  and  had  never  spared 
himself  for  the  cause  he  had  at  heart.  One  last  bit  of 
work  he  thought  he  must  do.  The  Counts  of  Mansfeld 
had  quarrelled  over  some  trifling  things  in  the  division 
of  their  property,  and  had  consented  to  accept  Luther's 
mediation.  This  obliged  him  to  journey  to  Eisleben 
in  bitterly  cold  weather  (January  1546).  "I  would 
cheerfully  lay  down  my  bones  in  the  grave  if  I  could 
only  reconcile  my  dear  Lords,"  he  said  ;  and  that  was 
what  was  required  from  him.  He  finished  the  arbitration 
to  the  satisfaction  of  both  brothers,  and  received  by  way  of 
fee  endowments  for  village  schools  in  the  Mansfeld  region. 
The  deeds  were  all  signed  by  the  17th  of  February  (1546), 
and  Luther's  work  was  done  at  Mansfeld — and  for  his 
generation.  He  became  alarmingly  ill  that  night,  and  died 
on  the  following  morning,  long  before  dawn.  "  Eeverend 
Father,"  said  Justus  Jonas,  who  was  with  him,  "  wilt  thou 
stand  by  Christ  and  the  doctrine  thou  hast  preached  ? "  The 
dying  man  roused  himself  to  say  "  Yes."  It  was  his  last  word. 
Twenty  minutes  later  he  passed  away  with  a  deep  sigh. 

Luther  died  in  his  sixty-third  year — twenty-eight  and 
a  half  years  after  he  had,  greatly  daring,  nailed  his  Theses 
to  the  door  of  All  Saints*  in  Wittenberg,  twenty-seven 
after  he  had  discovered  the  meaning  of  his  Theses  during 
the  memorable  days  when  he  faced  Eck  at  Leipzig,  and 
twenty-five  after  he  had  stood  before  the  Emperor  and 
Diet  at  Worms,  while  all  Germany  had  hailed  him  as  its 
champion  against  the  Pope  and  the  Spaniard.  The  years 
between  1519  and  1524  were,  from  an  external  point  of 
view,  the  most  glorious  of  Luther's  life.  He  dominated 
and  led  his  nation,  and  gave  a  unity  to  that  distracted  and 
divided  country  which  it  had  never  enjoyed  until  then. 
He  spoke  and  felt  like  a  prophet.  "  I  have  the  gospel, 
not  from  men,  but  from  heaven  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  so  that  I  might  have  described  myself  and  have 
glorified  in  being  a  minister  and  an  evangelist."  The 
position  had  come  to  him  in  no  sudden  visionary  way. 
He  had  been  led  into  it  step  by  step,  forced  forward  slowly 
«5* 


386        FROM    SPEYER,    1526,    TO   AUGSBURG,    1555 

by  a  power  stronger  than  his  own ;  and  the  knowledge 
had  kept  him  humble  before  his  God.  During  these  years 
it  seemed  as  if  his  dream — an  expectation  shared  by  his 
wise  Elector,  the  most  experienced  statesman  in  Germany 
— of  a  Germany  united  under  one  National  Church, 
separated  from  the  bondage  of  Eome,  repudiating  her  ]:)las- 
phemies,  rejecting  her  traditions  which  had  corrupted  the 
religion  of  the  ancient  and  purer  days,  and  disowning  her 
presumptuous  encroachments  on  the  domain  of  the  civil 
power  ordained  of  God,  was  about  to  come  true. 

Then  came  the  disillusionment  of  the  Peasants'  War, 
when  the  dragon's  teeth  were  sown  broadcast  over  Ger- 
many, and  produced  their  crop  of  gloomy  suspicions  and 
black  fears.  After  the  insurrection  had  spent  itself,  and 
in  spite  of  the  almost  irretrievable  damage  which  it,  and 
the  use  made  of  it  by  papal  diplomatists,  did  to  the 
Eeformation  movement,  Luther  regained  his  serene  courage, 
and  recovered  much  of  the  ground  which  had  been  lost. 
But  the  crushing  blow  had  left  its  mark  upon  him.  He 
had  the  same  trust  in  God,  but  much  more  distrust  of  man, 
fearing  the  "  tumult,"  resolute  to  have  nothing  to  do  with 
anyone  who  had  any  connection,  however  slight,  with  those 
who  had  instigated  the  misguided  peasants.  He  rallied 
the  forces  of  the  Eeformation,  and  brought  them  back  to 
discipline  by  the  faith  they  had  in  himself  as  their  leader. 
His  personality  dominated  those  kinglets  of  Germany, 
possessed  with  as  strong  a  sense  of  their  dignity  and 
autocratic  rights  as  any  Tudor  or  Valois,  and  they  sub- 
mitted to  be  led  by  him.  Electoral  Saxony,  Hesse,  Liine- 
burg,  Anhalt,  East  Prussia,  and  Mansfeld,  and  some  score 
of  imperial  cities,  had  followed  him  loyally  from  the  first , 
and  as  the  years  passed,  Ducal  Saxony  and  Wlirtemberg  in 
the  centre  and  south,  and  Brandenburg  in  the  north,  had 
declared  themselves  Protestant  States.  These  larger  princi- 
palities brought  in  their  train  all  the  smaller  satellite  States 
which  clustered  round  them.  It  may  be  said  that  before 
Luther's  death  the  much  larger  portion  of  the  German 
Empire  had  been  won  for  evaiigeHcal  religion, — a  territory 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  REFORMATION    387 

to  be  roughly  described  as  a  great  triangle,  whose  base  was 
the  shores  of  the  Baltic  Sea  from  the  Netherlands  on  the 
west  to  the  eastern  limits  of  East  Prussia,  and  whose  apex 
was  Switzerland.  Part  of  this  land  was  occupied  by 
ecclesiastical  principalities  which  had  remained  Koman 
Catholic, — the  districts  surrounding  Koln  on  the  west,  and 
the  territories  of  Paderborn,  Fulda,  and  many  others  in  the 
centre, — but,  on  the  other  hand,  many  stoutly  Protestant 
cities,  like  Niirnberg,  Constance,  and  Augsburg,  were  planted 
on  territories  which  were  outside  these  limits.  The  extent 
and  power  of  this  Protestant  Germany  was  sufficient  to 
resist  any  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Emperor  and  the 
Catholic  princes  to  overcome  it  by  force  of  arms,  provided 
only  its  rulers  remained  true  to  each  other. 

Over  this  wide  extent  of  country  Evangelical  Churches 
had  been  established,  and  provisions  had  been  made  for  the 
education  of  children  and  for  the  support  of  the  poor  in 
ordinances  issued  by  the  supreme  secular  authorities  who 
ruled  over  its  multitudinous  divisions.  The  Mass,  with 
its  supposed  substitutionary  sacrifice  and  a  mediatorial 
priesthood,  had  been  abolished.  The  German  tongue  had 
displaced  mediaeval  Latin  in  public  worship,  and  the  wor- 
shippers could  take  part  in  the  services  with  full  under- 
standing of  the  solemn  acts  in  which  they  were  engaged. 
A  German  Bible  lay  on  every  pulpit,  and  the  people  had 
their  copies  in  the  pews.  Translations  of  the  Psalms  and 
German  evangelical  hymns  were  sung,  and  sermons  in 
German  were  preached.  Pains  were  taken  to  provide  an 
educated  evangelical  ministry  who  would  preach  the  gospel 
faithfully,  and  conscientiously  fulfil  all  the  duties  connected 
with  the  "  cure  of  souls."  The  ecclesiastical  property  of 
the  mediaeval  Church  was  largely  used  for  evangelical 
purposes.  There  was  no  mechanical  uniformity  in  these 
new  arrangements.  Luther  refused  to  act  the  part  of  an 
ecclesiastical  autocrat:  he  advised  when  called  upon  to 
give  advice,  he  never  commanded.  No  Wittenberg  "  use  " 
was  to  confront  the  Eoman  "  use  "  and  be  the  only  mode 
of  service  and  ecclesiastical  organisation. 


388        FROM  SPEYBR,    1626,   TO   AUGSBURG,    1655 

The  movement  Luther  had  inaugurated  had  gone  far 
beyond  Germany  before  1546.  Every  country  in  Europe 
had  felt  its  pulsations.  As  early  as  1519  (April),  learned 
men  in  Paris  had  been  almost  feverishly  studying  his 
writings.^  They  were  eagerly  read  in  England  before 
1521.*  Aleander,  writing  from  Worms  to  the  Curia, 
complains  that  Spanish  merchants  were  getting  transla- 
tions of  Luther's  books  made  for  circulation  in  Spain.^ 
They  were  being  studied  with  admiration  in  Italy  even 
earlier.  The  Scottish  Parliament  was  vainly  endeavouring 
to  prevent  their  entrance  into  that  country  by  1525> 
The  Lutheran  Eeformation  had  been  legally  established  in 
Denmark,  Norway,  and  Sweden  long  before  Luther  passed 
away. 

Luther  was  the  one  great  man  of  his  generation,  stand- 
ing head  and  shoulders  above  everyone  else.  This  does 
not  mean  that  he  absorbed  in  his  individual  personality 
everything  that  the  age  produced  for  the  furtherance  of 
humanity.  Many  impulses  for  good  existed  in  that 
sixteenth  century  which  Luther  never  recognised ;  for  an 
age  is  always  richer  than  any  one  man  belonging  to  it. 
He  stood  outside  the  great  artistic  movement.  He  might 
have  learned  much  from  Erasmus  on  the  one  hand,  and 
from  the  leaders  of  the  Peasants'  War  on  the  other,  which 
remained  hidden  from  him.  He  is  greatest  in  the  one 
sphere  of  religion  only — in  the  greatest  of  all  spheres. 
His  conduct  towards  Zwingli  and  the  strong  language  he 
used  in  speaking  of  opponents  make  our  generation  dis- 
cover a  strain  of  intolerance  we  would  fain  not  see  in  so 
great  a  man ;  but  his  contemporaries  did  not  and  could 
not  pass  the  same  judgment  upon  him.  In  such  a  divided 
Germany  none  but  a  man  of  the  widest  tolerance  could 
have  held  together  the  Protestant  forces  as  Luther  did; 

^  HenniDJard,  Correspondanee  des  Eeformateurs  dans  les  pays  de  lang%i 
frangaise  (Geneva  and  Paris,  1866-1897),  i.  47,  48. 

*  Letters  and  Papers,  Foreign  and  Domestic,  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIILt 
in.  284. 

*  KalkoflF,  Die  Depeschen  des  Nuntius  Aleander  (Halle,  1897),  p.  106. 

*  AcU  of  the  ParHament  of  Scotland  for  1525  and  1527- 


THE    RELIGIOUS    WAR  889 

and  we  can  see  wliat  he  was  when  we  remember  the  sad 
effects  of  the  petty  orthodoxies  of  the  Amsdorfs  and  the 
Osianders  who  came  after  him. 

It  is  the  fate  of  most  authors  of  revolutions  to  be 
devoured  by  the  movement  which  they  have  called  into 
being.  Luther  occasioned  the  greatest  revolution  which 
Western  Europe  has  ever  seen,  and  he  ruled  it  till 
his  death.  History  shows  no  kinglier  man  than  this 
Thuringian  miner's  son. 

§  13.   The  Religious  War} 

The  war  began  soon  after  Luther's  death.  The  Emperor 
brought  into  Germany  his  Spanish  infantry,  the  beginning 
of  what  was  to  be  a  curse  to  that  country  for  many  genera- 
tions, and  various  manoeuvrings  and  skirmishes  took  place, 
the  most  important  of  which  was  Maurice  of  Saxony's 
invasion  of  the  Electorate.  At  last  the  Emperor  met  the 
Elector  in  battle  at  Miihlberg  (April  24th,  1547),  where 
John  Frederick  was  completely  defeated  and  taken  prisoner. 
I  Wittenberg,  stoutly  defended  by  Sibylla,  soon  after  sur- 
*  rendered.  This  was  the  end.  Philip  was  induced  to 
surrender  on  promise  of  favourable  treatment,  made  by  the 
Electors  who  had  remained  on  the  Emperor's  side.  Charles 
refused  to  be  bound  by  the  promise  made  in  his  name,  and 
the  Landgrave  was  also  held  captive.  All  Germany,  save 
Constance  in  the  south  and  some  of  the  Baltic  lands, 
lay  prostrate  at  the  Emperor's  feet.  It  remained  to  be 
seen  what  use  he  would  make  of  his  victory. 

In  due  time  he  set  himself  to  bring  about  what  he 
conceived  to  be  a  reasonable  compromise  which  would 
enable  all  Germany  to  remain  within  one  National  Church. 
He  tried  at  first  to  induce  the  separate  parties  to  work 

*  Maurenbrecher,  Karl  V.  und  die  deutsehen  Protestanten  1545-1665 
(Diisseldorf,  1865) ;  Jahn,  Oeschiehte  des  Schmalkaldischen  Krieges  (Leipzig, 
1837)  ;  Le  Mang,  Die  Darstellung  des  Schmalkaldischen  Krieges  in  den 
Denkwurdigkeiten  Karls  V.  (Jena,  1890,  1899,  1900) ;  Brandenburg,  Morita 
vcn  Sachsen  (Leipzig,  1898). 


390        PROM   SPEYER,    1626,   TO   AUGSBURG,    1555 

it  out  among  themselves;  and,  when  this  was  found  to 
be  hopeless,  he,  like  a  second  Justinian,  resolved  to  con- 
struct a  creed  and  to  impose  it  by  force  upon  all,  especially 
upon  the  Lutherans.  To  begin  with,  he  had  to  defy  the 
Pope  and  slight  the  General  Council  for  which  he  had 
been  mainly  responsible.  He  formally  demanded  that 
the  Council  should  return  to  German  soil  (it  had  been 
transferred  to  Bologna),  and,  when  this  was  refused,  he 
protested  against  its  existence  and,  like  the  German  Pro- 
testants he  was  coercing,  declared  that  he  would  not 
submit  to  its  decrees.  He  next  selected  three  theo- 
logians, Michael  Holding,  Julius  von  Pflug,  and  Agricola,— a 
mediaevalist,  an  Erasmian,  and  a  very  conservative  Lutheran 
— to  construct  what  was  called  the  Augsburg  Interim, 

§  14.  The  Augsburg  Interim} 

This  document  taught  the  dogma  of  Transubstantiation, 
the  seven  Sacraments,  adoration  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  and 
the  Saints,  retained  most  of  the  mediaeval  ceremonies  and 
usages,  and  declared  the  Pope  to  be  the  Head  of  the 
Church.  This  was  to  please  the  Romanists.  It  appealed  to 
the  Lutherans  by  adopting  the  doctrine  of  Justification  by 
Faith  in  a  modified  form,  the  marriage  of  priests  with  some 
reservations,  the  use  of  the  Cup  by  the  laity  in  the  Holy 
Supper,  and  by  considerably  modifying  the  doctrine  of  the 
sacrificial  character  of  the  Mass.  Of  course  all  its  pro- 
positions were  ambiguous,  and  could  be  read  in  two  ways. 
This  was  probably  the  intention  of  the  framers ;  if  so,  they 
were  highly  successful. 

\  Nothing  that  Charles  ever  undertook  proved  such  a 
'dismal  failure  as  this  patchwork  creed  made  from  snippets 
from  two  Confessions.  However  lifeless  creeds  may  become, 
they  all — real  ones — have  grown  out  of  the  living  Christian 

*  Schmidt,  *'  Agenda  and  Letters  relating  to  the  Interim^**  in  Zeitschrif% 
fur  historisch.  Theologie,  xxxviii.  (1868)  pp.  431  fit.,  461  ff.  ;  Beutel,  Uber  den 
Ursprung  des  Augsburger  Interim  (Leipzig,  1888)  ;  Meyer,  Der  Augsburger 
'Reichstag  nach  einem  fiirstlichm  Tagebuch  {Preus.  Jahrb.  1898,  pp.  206-242). 


THE   AUGSBURG    INTERIM  391 

experience  of  their  framers,  and  have  contained  the  very 
life-blood  of  their  hearts  as  well  as  of  their  brains.  It  is 
a  hopeless  task  to  construct  creeds  as  a  tailor  shapes  and 
stitches  coats. 

j  Charles,  however,  was  proud  of  his  creed,  and  did  his 
/best  to  enforce  it  The  Diet  of  1548  showed  him  his 
difficulties.  The  Interim  was  accepted  and  proclaimed  as 
an  edict  by  this  Diet  (May  15),  but  only  after  the  Em- 
peror, very  unwillingly,  declared  practically  that  it  was 
meant  for  the  Protestants  alone.  *'  The  Emperor,"  said  a 
member  of  the  Diet,  "is  fighting  for  religion  against  the 
Pope,  whom  he  acknowledges  to  be  its  head,  and  against 
the  two  parts  of  Christendom  in  Germany — the  mass  of 
the  Protestants  and  the  ecclesiastical  princes."  Thus  from 
the  beginning  what  was  to  be  an  instrument  to  unite 
German  Christendom  was  transformed  into  a  "  strait-waist- 
coat for  the  Lutherans  "  ;  and  this  did  not  make  it  more 
palatable  for  them.  At  first  the  strong  measures  taken  by 
the  Emperor  compelled  its  nominal  acceptance  by  many  of 
the  Protestant  princes.^  The  cities  which  seemed  to  be 
most  refractory  had  their  Councils  purged  of  their  demo- 
cratic members,  and  their  Lutheran  preachers  sent  into 
banishment — Matthew  Alber  from  Keutlingen,  Wolfgang 
Musculus  from  Augsburg,  Brenz  from  Hall,  Osiander  from 
Nurnberg,  Schnepf  from  Tubingen.  Bucer  and  Fagius  had 
to  flee  from  Strassburg  and  take  refuge  in  England.  The 
city  of  Constance  was  besieged  and  fell  after  a  heroic 
defence;  it  was  deprived  of  its  privileges  as  an  imperial 
city,  and  was  added  to  the  family  possessions  of  the  House 
of  Austria.  Its  pastor,  Blarer,  was  sent  into  banishment. 
Four  hundred  Lutheran  divines  were  driven  from  their 
homes. 

j  If  Charles,  backed  by  his  Spanish  and  Italian  troops, 
could  secure  a  nominal  submission  to  his  Interim,  he  could 
not  coerce  the  people  into  accepting  it.  The  churches  stood 
empty  in  Augsburg,  in  Ulm,  and   in    other  cities.      The 

^  Maurice  of  Saxony  was  permitted  to  make  some  alterations  on  the 
Interim  for  his  dominions,  and  his  edition  was  called  the  Leipzig  Interim. 


392        FROM    SPEYER,    1526,    TO   AUGSBURG,    1665 

people  met  it  by  an  almost  universal  passive  resistancb  — iJ 
singing  doggerel  verses  in  mockery  of  the  InteHm  may  be 
called  passive.  When  the  Emperor  ordered  Duke  Christopher 
of  Wiirtemberg  to  drive  Brenz  out  of  his  refuge  in  his  State, 
the  Duke  answered  him  that  he  could  not  banish  his  whole 
population.  The  popular  feeling,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases, 
found  vent  in  all  manner  of  satirical  songs,  pamphlets,  and 
even  catechisms.  As  in  the  times  before  the  Peasants'  War, 
this  coarse  popular  literature  had  an  immense  circulation. 
Much  of  it  took  the  form  of  rude  broadsides  with  a  picture, 
generally  satirical,  at  the  top,  and  the  song,  sometimes  with 
the  music  score,  printed  below.^  Wandering  preachers, 
whom  no  amoimt  of  police  supervision  could  check,  went 
inveighing  against  the  Interim,  distributing  the  rude  litera- 
ture through  the  villages  and  among  the  democracy  in  the 
towns.  Soon  the  creed  and  the  edict  which  enforced  it 
became  practically  a  dead  letter  throughout  the  greater 
part  of  Germany. 

The  presence  of  the  Emperor's  Spanish  troops  on  the 
soil  of  the  Fatherland  irritated  the  feelings  of  Germans, 
whether  Komanists  or  Protestants ;  the  insolence  and  ex- 
cesses of  these  soldiers  stung  the  common  people;  and 
their  employment  to  enforce  the  hated  Interim  on  the 
Protestants  was  an  additional  insult.  The  citizens  of  one 
imperial  city  were  told  that  if  they  did  not  accept  the 
Interim  they  must  be  taught  theology  by  Spanish  troops, 
and  of  another  that  they  would  yet  learn  to  speak  the 
language  of  Spain.  While  the  popular  odium  against 
Charles  was  slowly  growing  in  intensity,  he  contrived  to 
increase  it  by  a  proposal  that  his  son  Philip  should  have 
the  imperial  crown  after  his  brother  Ferdinand.  Charles' 
own  election  had  been  caused  by  a  patriotic  sentiment. 
The  people  thought  that  a  German  was  better  than  a 
Frenchman,  and  they  had  found  out  too  late  that  they  had 
not  got  a  German  but  a  Spaniard.  Ferdinand  had  lived 
in  Germany  long  enough  to  know  its  wants,  and  his  son 

*  One  of  these  broadsides  is  reproduced  in  von  BezoJd's  GeschichU  der 
deutschen  Ee/ormation  (Berlin,  1890),  p.  806. 


THE    AUGSBURG    INTERIM  893 

Maximilian  had  shown  that  he  possessed  many  qualities 
which  appealed  to  the  German  character.  The  proposal 
to  substitute  Philip,  however  natural  from  Charles'  point 
of  view,  and  consistent  with  his  earlier  idea  that  the  House 
of  Hapsburg  should  have  one  head,  meant  to  the  Germans 
to  still  further  "hispaniolate"  Germany.  This  unpopularity 
of  Charles  among  all  ranks  and  classes  of  Germans  grew 
rapidly  between  1548  and  1552;  and  during  the  same 
years  his  foreign  prestige  was  fast  waning.  He  remained 
in  Germany,  with  the  exception  of  a  short  visit  to  the 
Netherlands;  but  in  spite  of  his  presence  the  anarchy 
grew  worse  and  worse.  The  revolt  which  came  might 
have  arisen  much  sooner  had  the  Protestants  been  able  to 
overcome  their  hatred  and  suspicion  of  Maurice  of  Saxony, 
whose  co-operation  was  almost  essential.  It  is  unnecessary 
to  describe  the  intrigues  which  went  on  around  the  Emperor, 
careless  though  not  unforewamed. 

Maurice  had  completed  his  arrangements  with  his 
German  allies  and  with  France  early  in  1552.  The  Em- 
peror had  retired  from  Augsburg  to  Innsbruck.  Maurice 
seized  the  Pass  of  Ehrenberg  on  the  nights  of  May  18th, 
19th,  and  pressed  on  to  Innsbruck,  hoping  to  "run  the  old 
fox  to  earth."  Charles  escaped  by  a  few  hours,  and,  accom- 
panied by  his  brother  Ferdinand,  fled  over  the  Brenner  Pass 
amid  a  storm  of  snow  and  rain.  It  was  the  road  by  which 
he  had  entered  Germany  in  fair  spring  weather  when  he  came 
in  1530,  in  the  zenith  of  his  power,  to  settle,  as  he  had 
confidently  expected,  the  religious  difficulties  in  Germany. 
He  reached  Villach  in  Carinthia  in  safety,  and  there  waited 
the  issue  of  events. 

The  German  princes  gathered  in  great  numbers  at 
iPassau  (Aug.  1552)  to  discuss  the  position  and  arrive  at 
a  settlement.  Maurice  was  ostensibly  the  master  of  the 
situation,  for  his  troops  and  those  of  his  wild  ally  Albert 
Alcibiades  of  Brandenburg- Culmbach  were  in  the  town, 
and  many  a  prince  felt  "  as  if  they  had  a  hare  in  their 
breast."  His  demands  for  the  public  good  were  moderate 
and  statesmanlike.      He  asked  for  the  immediate  release  of 


394        FROM   SI»EYER,    1526,   TO   AUGSBURG,    1556 

his  fatlier-in-law  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse ;  for  a  settlement 
of  the  religious  question  on  a  basis  that  would  be  permanentr, 
at  a  meeting  of  German  princes  fairly  representative  of  the 
two  parties — no  Council  summoned  and  directed  by  the 
Pope  would  ever  give  fair-play  to  the  Protestants,  he  said, 
nor  could  they  expect  to  get  it  from  the  Diet  where  the 
large  number  of  ecclesiastical  members  gave  an  undue  pre- 
ponderance to  the  Eomanist  side ;  and  for  a  settlement  of 
some  constitutional  questions.  The  princes  present,  and 
with  them  Ferdinand,  King  of  the  Eomans,  were  inclined  to 
.accept  these  demands.  But  when  they  were  referred  to 
Charles  at  Yillach,  he  absolutely  refused  to  permit  the 
religious  or  the  constitutional  question  to  be  settled  by 
any  assembly  but  the  Diet  of  the  Empire.  Nothing  would 
move  him  from  his  opinion,  neither  the  entreaties  of  his 
brother  nor  his  own  personal  danger.  He  still  counted  on 
the  divisions  among  the  Protestants,  and  believed  that  he 
had  only  to  support  the  "  born  Elector  "  of  Saxony  against 
the  one  of  his  own  creation  to  deprive  Maurice  of  his 
strength.  It  may  be  that  Maurice  had  his  own  fears,  it 
may  be  that  he  was  glad  to  have  the  opportunity  of  show- 
ing that  the  "  Spaniard  "  was  the  one  enemy  to  a  lasting 
peace  in  Germany.  He  contented  himself  with  the  acqui- 
escence of  John  Frederick  in  the  permanent  loss  of  the 
Electorate  as  arranged  at  the  Peace  of  Wittenberg  (1547). 
Charles  was  then  free  to  come  back  to  Augsburg,  where 
he  had  the  petty  satisfaction  of  threatening  the  Lutheran 
preachers  who  had  returned,  and  of  again  overthrowing 
the  democratic  government  of  the  city.  He  then  went  to 
assume  the  command  of  the  German  army  which  was 
opposing  the  French.  His  failure  to  take  the  city  of 
Metz  was  followed  by  his  practical  abandonment  of  the 
direction  of  the  affairs  of  Germany,  which  were  left  in  the 
hands  of  Ferdinand.  The  disorders  of  the  time  delayed 
the  meeting  of  the  Diet  until  1555  (opened  Feb.  5th). 
The  Elector  and  the  "  bom  Elector "  of  Saxony  were  both 
dead — John  Frederick,  worn  out  by  misfortune  and  im- 
prisonment (March  3rd,  1554),  and  sympathised  with  by 


THE   RELIGIOUS   PEACE   OF   AUGSBURG  395 

friends  and  foes  alike ;  and  Maurice,  only  thirty-two  years 
of  age,  killed  in  the  moment  of  victory  at  Sievershausen 
(July  9th,  1553). 

It  was  in  the  summer  of  1554  that  the  Emperor  had 
handed  over,  in  a  carefully  limited  manner,  the  manage- 
ment of  German  affairs  to  his  brother  Ferdinand,  the  King 
of  the  Eomans.  The  terms  of  devolution  of  authority  imply 
that  this  was  done  by  Charles  to  avoid  the  humiliation  of 
being  personally  responsible  for  acquiescence  in  what  was 
to  him  a  hateful  necessity,  and  the  confession  of  failure 
in  his  management  of  Germany  from  1530.  Everyone 
recognised  that  peace  was  necessary  at  almost  any  price, 
but  Ferdinand  and  the  higher  ecclesiastical  princes  shrunk 
from  facing  the  inevitable.  The  King  of  the  Eomans  still 
cherished  some  vague  hopes  of  a  compromise  which  would 
preserve  the  unity  of  the  mediaeval  German  Church,  and 
the  selfish  policy  of  many  of  the  Protestant  princes  en- 
couraged him.  Elector  Joachim  of  Brandenburg  wished 
the  archbishopric  of  Magdeburg  and  the  bishopric  of 
Halberstadt  for  his  son  Sigismund,  and  declared  that  he 
would  be  content  with  the  Interim  \  Christopher  of 
Wlirtemberg  cherished  similar  designs  on  ecclesiastical 
properties.  Augustus  of  Saxony,  Maurice's  brother  and 
successor,  wished  the  bishopric  of  Meissen.  All  these 
designs  could  be  more  easily  fulfilled  if  the  external  unity 
of  the  mediaeval  Church  remained  unbroken. 


§  15.  Religious  Peace  of  Atigsburg} 

The  Diet  had  been  summoned  for  Nov.  13  th  (1554), 
but  when  Ferdinand  reached  Augsburg  about  the  end  of 
the  year,  the  Estates  had  not  gathered.  He  was  able 
to  open  the  Diet  formally  on  Feb.  5th  (1555),  but  none 
of  the  Electors,  and  only  two  of  the  great  ecclesiastical 
princes,  the  Cardinal  Bishop  of  Augsburg  and  the  Bishop 

*  Wolf,  Der  Augshurger  Religionsfriede  (Stuttgart,  1890) ;  Brandi,  Der 
Augsburger  Religionsfriede  (Munich,  1896) ;  Druffel,  Beitrdge  zur  Eeicha- 
geschichte,  1553-1555  (Munich,  1896). 


39 G        FROM   SPEYER,    1526,    TO    AUGSBURG,    1666 

I  of  Eiclistadt,  were  present  in  person.  Wliile  the  Diet 
I  dragged  on  aimlessly,  the  Protestant  princes  gathered  to 
■  a  great  Council  of  their  own  at  Naumburg  (March  3rd, 
1555)  to  concert  a  common  policy.  Among  those  present 
were  the  Electors  of  Brandenburg  and  Saxony,  the  sons 
of  John  Frederick,  the  ill-fated  "born  Elector,"  and  the 
Landgrave  of  Hesse — sixteen  princes  and  a  great  number 
of  magnates.  After  long  debates,  the  assembly  decided 
(March  13th)  that  they  would  stand  by  the  Augsburg 
Confession  of  1530,  and  that  the  minority  would  unite 
with  the  majority  in  carrying  out  one  common  policy. 
Even  "  fat  old  Interim,"  as  Elector  Joachim  of  Brandenburg 
had  been  nicknamed,  was  compelled  to  submit;  and  the 
Protestants  stood  on  a  firm  basis  with  a  definite  programme, 
and  pledged  to  support  each  other. 

This  memorable  meeting  at  Naumburg  forced  the  hands 
of  the  members  of  the  Diet.  Every  member,  save  the 
Cardinal  Bishop  of  Augsburg,  desired  a  permanent  settle- 
ment of  the  religious  question,  and  their  zeal  appeared  in 
the  multiplicity  of  adjectives  used  to  express  the  pre- 
dominant thought — "  hestdndiger,  heharrlichery  unbedingter, 
fur  und  fur  ewig  wahrender  "  was  the  phrase.  The  meet- 
ing at  Naumburg  showed  them  that  this  could  not  be 
secured  without  the  recognition  of  Lutheranism  as  a  legal 
religion  within  the  German  Empire. 

When  the  Protestant  demands  were  formally  placed 
before  the  Diet,  they  were  found  to  include — security 
under  the  Public  Law  of  the  Empire  for  all  who  professed 
the  Augsburg  Confession,  and  for  all  who  in  future  might 
make  the  same  profession ;  liberty  to  hold  legally  all  the 
ecclesiastical  property  which  had  been  or  might  in  the 
future  be  secularised  ;  complete  toleration  for  all  Lutherans 
who  were  resident  in  Eomanist  States  without  correspond- 
ing toleration  for  Eomanists  in  Lutheran  States.  These 
demands  went  much  further  than  any  which  Luther  him- 
self had  formulated,  and  really  applied  to  Eomanists  some 
of  the  provisions  of  the  "recess"  of  Speyer  (1529)  which, 
when  applied  to  Lutherans,  had  called  forth  the  Protest 


THE   RELIGIOUS   PEACE   OF   AUGSBURG  397 

They  were  vehemently  objected  to  by  the  Eomanist  members 
of  the  Diet ;  and,  as  both  parties  seemed  unwilling  to  yield 
anything  to  the  other,  there  was  some  danger  of  the  religious 
iWar  breaking  out  again.  The  mediation  of  Ferdinand  for 
I  the  Eomanists  and  Frederick  of  Saxony  for  the  Protestants 
brought  a  compromise  after  months  of  debate.  It  was  agreed 
that  the  Lutheran  religion  should  be  legalised  within  the 
Empire,  and  that  all  Lutheran  princes  should  have  full 
security  for  the  practice  of  their  faith ;  that  the  mediaeval 
episcopal  jurisdiction  should  cease  within  their  lands ;  and 
that  they  were  to  retain  all  ecclesiastical  possessions  which 
had  been  secularised  before  the  passing  of  the  Treaty  of 
yPassau  (1552).  Future  changes  of  faith  were  to  be  deter- 
3  mined  by  the  principle  cujus  regio  ejus  religio.  The  secular 
territorial  ruler  might  choose  between  the  Eomanist  or 
the  Lutheran  faith,  and  his  decision  was  to  bind  all  his 
subjects.  If  a  subject  professed  another  religion  from  his 
prince,  he  was  to  be  allowed  to  emigrate  without  molesta- 
tion. These  provisions  were  agreed  upon  by  all,  and 
embodied  in  the  "recess."  Two  very  important  matters 
remained  unsettled.  The  Eomanists  demanded  that  any 
ecclesiastical  prince  who  changed  his  faith  should  thereby 
forfeit  lands  and  dignities — the  "  ecclesiastical  reservation." 
This  was  embodied  in  the  "recess,"  but  the  Protestants 
declared  that  they  would  not  be  bound  by  it.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Protestants  demanded  toleration  for  all 
Lutherans  living  within  the  territories  of  Eomanist  princes. 
This  was  not  embodied  in  the  "  recess,"  though  Ferdinand 
promised  that  he  would  see  it  carried  out  in  practice.^ 
Such  was  the  famous  Peace  of  Augsburg.  There  was  no 
reason  why  it  should  not  have  come  years  earlier  and 
without  the  wild  war-storm  which  preceded  it,  save  the 
fact  that,  in  an  unfortunate  fit  of  enthusiasm,  the  Germans 
had  elected  the  young  King  of  Spain  to  be  their  Emperor. 
They  had  chosen  the  grandson  of  the  genial  Maxmilian, 
belie^dng  him  to  be  a  real  German,  and  they  got  a  man 

'  These  two  unsettled  questions  became  active  in  the  disputes  which 
began  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 


398    FROM  SPEYER,  1626,  TO  AUGSBURG,  1555 

whose  attitude  to  religion  "was  half-way  between  the 
genial  orthodoxy  of  his  grandfather  Maxmilian  and  the 
gloomy  fanaticism  of  his  son  Philip  ii.,"  and  whose  "  mind 
was  always  travelling  away  from  the  former  and  towards 
the  latter  position."^  The  longer  he  lived  the  more 
Spanish  he  became,  and  the  less  capable  of  understanding 
Germany,  either  on  its  secular  or  religious  side.  His 
whole  public  life,  so  far  as  that  country  was  concerned, 
was  one  disastrous  failure.  He  succeeded  only  when  he 
used  his  imperial  position  to  increase  and  consolidate  the 
territorial  possessions  of  the  House  of  Hapsburg ;  for  the 
charge  of  dismembering  the  Empire  can  be  brought  home  to 
Charles  as  effectually  as  to  the  most  selfish  of  the  princes 
of  Germany. 

The  Eeligious  Peace  of  Augsburg  was  contained  in 
the  decisions  of  Speyer  in  1526,  and  it  was  repeated  in 
every  one  of  the  truces  which  the  Emperor  made  with  his 
Lutheran  subjects  from  1530  to  1544.^  Had  any  one  of 
these   been   made   permanent,  the   religious  war,  with  its 

^  Pollard,  Cambridge  Modem  History,  ii.  144, 

'  The  Religious  Peace  of  Augsburg  had  important  diplomatic  consequences 
beyond  Gennany.  The  Lutheran  form  of  faith  was  recognised  to  be  a  religio 
licita  (to  use  the  old  Roman  phrase)  within  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  which, 
according  to  the  legal  ideas  of  the  day,  included  all  Western  Christendom  ; 
and  Popes  could  no  longer  excommunicate  Protestants  simply  because  they 
were  Protestants,  without  striking  a  serious  blow  at  the  constitution  of 
the  Empire.  No  one  perceived  this  sooner  than  the  sagacious  young  woman 
who  became  the  first  Protestant  Queen  of  England.  In  the  earlier  and 
unsettled  years  of  her  reign,  Elizabeth  made  full  use  of  the  protection  that  a 
profession  of  the  Lutheran  Creed  gave  to  shield  her  from  excommunication. 
She  did  so  when  the  Count  de  Feria,  the  ambassador  of  Philip  ii.,  threatened 
her  with  the  fate  of  the  King  of  Navarre  {Calendar  of  Letters  arid  State 
Papers  relating  to  English  Affairs,  preserved  principally  in  the  Archives  oj 
Simancas,  i.  61,  62) ;  she  suppressed  all  opinions  which  might  be  supposed 
to  conflict  with  the  Lutheran  Creed  in  the  Thirty-eight  Articles  of  1563 ; 
she  kept  crosses  and  lights  on  the  altar  of  her  chapel  in  Lutheran  fashion. 
When  the  Pope  first  drafted  a  Bull  to  excommunicate  the  English  Queen, 
and  submitted  it  to  the  Emperor,  he  was  told  that  it  would  be  an  act  of 
folly  to  publish  a  document  which  would  invalidate  the  Emperor's  own 
election  ;  and  when  Elizabeth  was  finally  excommunicated  in  1570,  the 
charge  against  her  was  not  being  a  Protestant,  but  shaiing  in  "the  impious 
mysteries  of  Calvin"  —  the  Reformed  or  Calvinist  Churches  being  outsid* 
the  Peace  of  Augsburg. 


THE    RELIGIOUS    PEACE    OF    AUGSBURG  399 

outcome  in  wild  anarchy,  in  embittered  religious  antagon- 
isms, and  its  seed  of  internecine  strife,  to  be  reaped  in 
the  Thirty  Years'  War,  would  never  have  occurred.  But 
Charles,  whose  mission,  he  fancied,  was  to  preserve  the 
unity  "  of  the  seamless  robe  of  Christ,"  as  he  phrased  it, 
could  only  make  the  attempt  by  drenching  the  fields  of 
Germany  with  blood,  and  perpetuating  and  accentuating 
the  religious  antagonisms  of  the  country  which  had  chosen 
him  for  its  Protector. 

This  Eeligious  Peace  of  Augsburg  has  been  claimed, 
and  rightly,  as  a  victory  for  religious  liberty. 

From  one  point  of  view  the  victory  was  not  a  great 
one.  The  only  Confession  tolerated  was  the  Augsburg. 
The  Swiss  Eeformation  and  its  adherents  were  outside 
the  scope  of  the  religious  peace.  What  grew  to  be  the 
Keformed  or  Calvinistic  Church  was  also  outside.  It 
was  limited  solely  to  the  Lutheran,  or,  as  it  was  called, 
the  Evangelical  creed.  Nor  was  there  much  gain  to 
the  personal  liberty  of  conscience.  It  may  be  said  with 
truth  that  there  was  less  freedom  of  conscience  under  tlie 
Lutheran  territorial  system  of  Churches,  and  also  under 
the  Eoman  Catholic  Church  reorganised  under  the  canons 
and  decrees  of  Trent,  than  there  had  been  in  the  mediaeval 
Church. 

The  victory  lay  in  this,  that  the  first  blow  had  been 
struck  to  free  mankind  from  the  fetters  of  Eomanist  ab- 
solutism ;  that  the  first  faltering  step  had  been  taken  on 
the  road  to  religious  liberty ;  and  the  first  is  valuable  not 
for  what  it  is  in  itself,  but  for  what  it  represents  and  for 
what  comes  after  it.  The  Eeligious  Peace  of  Augsburg 
did  not  concede  much  according  to  modern  standards ;  but 
it  contained  the  potency  and  promise  of  the  future.  It  is 
always  the  first  step  which  counta 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  ORGANISATION  OF  LUTHERAN  CHURCHES.* 

Two  conceptions,  the  second  being  derived  from  the  first, 
lay  at  the  basis  of  everything  which  Luther  said  or  did 
about  the  organisation  of  the  Christian  fellowship  into 
churches. 

The  primary  and  cardinal  doctrine,  which  was  the 
foundation  of  everything,  was  the  spiritual  priesthood  of  all 
believers.  This,  he  believed,  implied  that  preaching,  dis- 
pensing the  sacraments,  ecclesiastical  discipline,  and  so 
forth  were  not  the  exclusive  possession  of  a  special  caste  of 
men  to  whom  they  had  been  committed  by  God,  and  who 
therefore  were  mediators  between  God  and  man.  These 
divine  duties  belonged  to  the  whole  community  as  a  fellow- 
ship of  believing  men  and  women ;  but  as  a  division  of 
labour  was  necessary,  and  as  each  individual  Christian 
cannot  undertake  such  duties  without  disorder  ensuing, 
the  community  must  seek  out  and  set  apart  certain  of  its 
members  to  perform  them  in  its  name. 

^  SoTTKCES  :  Richter,  Die  evangelischen  Kirchenordnungen  des  seehszehnten 
Jahrhunderts  (Weimar,  1846) ;  Sehling,  Die  evangelischen  Kirchenordnungen 
des  16ten  Jahrhunderts  (Leipzig,  1902);  Kins,  "Das  Stipendiumwesen  in 
Wittenberg  und  Jena  .  .  .  ira  16ten  Jahrhundert "  {Zeitschriftfdr  hidorische 
Theologie,  xxxv.  (1865)  pp.  96  ff.);  G.  Schmidt,  "Eine  Kirchenvisitation 
im  Jahre  1525"  {ZeitschHftfur  die  hist.  Theol.  xxxv.  291  ff.)  ;  Winter,  "Die 
Kirchenvisitation  von  1528  im  Wittenberger  Kreise"  (Zeitsch.  filr  hist. 
Theol.  xxxiii.  (1863)  295  ff.);  Muther,  "  Drei  Urkunden  zur  Reformations- 
geschichte"  {Zeitschr.  fur  hist.  Theol.  xxx.  (1860)  452  ff.);  Albrecht,  Der 
Kle'me  Catechismus  fur  die  gemeint  Pfarher  und  Prediger  (facsimile  reprint 
of  edition  ofl636  ;  Halle  a.  S.  1905).  ' 

Later  Books  :  Kastner,  Die  Kinderfragen :  Der  erste  deutseh^  Kate- 
chismus  (Leipzig,  1902)  ;  Burkhardt,  Geschichle  der  deutschen  Kirchen-  und 
Schul visitation  im  Zeitalter  der  Reformation  (Leipzig,  1879)  ;  Berlit,  Luthtr^ 
Mumer  und  dx$  KirchenJied  des  16ten  Jahrhunderts  (Leipzig,  1899). 

400 


ORGANISATION   OF   LUTHERAN   CHURCHES        401 

The  second  conception  was  that  secular  government 
is  an  ordinance  ordained  of  God,  and  that  the  special  rule 
claimed  by  the  Koman  Pontiff  over  things  secular  and 
[  sacred  was  a  usurpation  of  the  powers  committed  by  God 
'  to  the  secular  authority.  This  Luther  understood  to  mean 
that  the  Christian  magistracy  might  well  represent  the 
Christian  community  of  believers,  and,  in  its  name  or 
associated  with  it,  undertake  the  organisation  and  super- 
intendence of  the  Church  civic  or  territorial 

In  his  earlier  writings,  penned  before  the  outbreak  of 
the  Peasants'  War,  Luther  dwells  most  on  the  thought  of 
the  community  of  believers,  their  rights  and  powers;  in 
the  later  ones,  when  the  fear  of  the  common  man  had 
taken  possession  of  him,  the  secular  authority  occupies  his 
whole  field  of  thought.  But  although,  before  the  Peasants' 
War,  Luther  does  not  give  such  a  fixed  place  to  the  secular 
magistracy  as  the  one  source  of  authority  or  supervision 
over  the  Church,  the  conception  was  in  his  mind  from  the 
first. 

Among  the  various  duties  which  belong  to  the  com- 
pany of  believers,  Luther  selected  three  as  the  most  out- 
standing,— those  connected  with  the  pastorate,  including 
preaching,  dispensing  the  sacraments,  and  so  forth ;  the 
service  of  Christian  charity ;  and  the  duty  of  seeing  that 
the  children  belonging  to  the  community,  and  especially 
"poor,  miserable,  and  deserted  children,"  were  properly 
educated  and  trained  to  become  useful  members  of  the 
commonwealth. 

In  the  few  instances  of  attempts  made  before  the 
Peasants'  War  to  formulate  those  conceptions  into  regula- 
tions for  communities  organised  according  to  evangelical 
principles,  we  find  the  community  and  the  magistracy  com- 
bining to  look  after  the  public  worship,  the  poor,  and  educa- 
tion. Illustrations  may  be  seen  in  the  Wittenberg  ordinance 
of  1522  (Carlstadt),  and  the  ordinances  of  Leisnig  (1523) 
and  Magdeburg  (1524).^     All  three  are  examples  of  the 

*  Cf.  for  tlie  Wittenberg  ordinance,  Richter,  Die  evangel ischen  KircJien- 
ordnungen  des  secJiszehnten  Jahrhunderts    (Weimftr,    1846),   ii.   484,   and 
26* 


402   ORGANISATION  OF  LUTHERAN  CHURCHES 

local  authority  within  a  small  community  endeavouring, 
at  the  prompting  of  preachers  and  people,  to  express  in 
definite  regulations  some  of  the  demands  of  the  new 
evangelical  life. 

Luther  himself  thought  these  earlier  regulations  prema* 
tare,  and  insisted  that  the  Wittenberg  ordinance  should  be 
cancelled.  He  knew  that  changes  must  come ;  but  he 
hoped  to  see  them  make  their  way  gradually,  almost  im- 
perceptibly, commending  themselves  to  everyone  without 
special  enactment  prescribed  by  external  authority.  He 
published  suggestions  for  the  dispensation  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  and  of  Baptism  in  the  churches  in  Wittenberg  as 
early  as  1523  ;  he  collected  and  issued  a  small  selection 
of  evangelical  hymns  which  might  be  sung  in  Public 
Worship  (1524);  during  the  same  year  he  addressed  the 
burgomasters  and  councillors  of  all  German  towns  on  the 
erection  and  maintenance  of  Christian  schools ;  and  he 
congratulated  more  than  one  municipality  on  provisions 
made  for  the  care  of  the  poor.^  Above  all,  he  had,  while 
in  Wartburg,  completed  a  translation  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment which,  after  revision  by  Melanchthon  and  other 
friends,  was  published  in  1522  (Sept.  21st),  and  wenfi 
through  sixteen  revised  editions  and  more  than  fifty  re- 
impressions  before  1534.  The  translation  of  the  Old 
Testament  was  made  by  a  band  of  scholars  at  Wittenberg, 
published  in  instalments,  and  finally  in  complete  form  in 
1534. 

He  always  cherished  the  hope  that  the  evangelical 
faith  would  spread  quietly  all  over  his  dear  Fatherland  if 
only   room  were   made   for   the  preaching   of  the   gospel. 

Sehling,  Die  evangelischen  Kirdienordnungen  deslGten  Jahrhunderts  (Leipzig, 
1902),  I.  i.  697  ;  for  Leisnig,  Richter,  i.  10.  An  account  of  the  Magde- 
burg ordinance  is  to  be  found  in  Funk,  Ifittheilungen  mis  der  Geschichte 
des  evangelischen  Kirchemoesens  in  Magdeburg  (Magdeburg,  1842),  p.  210, 
and  Richter,  i.  17. 

^  Luther's  early  suggestions  about  the  dispensation  of  the  sacraments 
have  been  collected  by  Sehling,  i.  i.  2,  18.  A  portion  of  the  hymn-book 
has  been  reproduced  in  facsimile  in  von  Bezcld's  OescMchte  der  deutscheit 
fteformatum,  Berlin,  18£^0,  p.  566. 


ORGANISATION    OF   LUTHERAN   CHURCHES       403 

This  of  itself,  he  thought,  would  in  due  time  effect  a 
peaceful  transformation  of  the  ecclesiastical  life  and  wor- 
ship. The  Diets  of  Niirnberg  and  Speyer  had  provided 
a  field,  always  growing  wider,  for  this  quiet  transformation. 
Luther  was  as  indifferent  to  forms  of  Church  government 
as  John  Wesley,  and,  like  Wesley,  every  step  he  took  in 
providing  for  a  separate  organisation  was  forced  upon  him 
as  a  practical  necessity.  To  the  very  last  he  cherished 
the  hope  that  there  might  be  no  need  for  any  great  change 
in  the  external  government  of  the  Church.  The  Augsburg 
Confession  itself  (1530)  concludes  with  the  words:  "Our 
meaning  is  not  to  have  rule  taken  from  the  bishops ; 
but  this  one  thing  only  is  requested  at  their  hands,  that 
they  would  suffer  the  gospel  to  be  purely  taught,  and 
that  they  would  relax  a  few  observances,  which  cannot  be 
held  without  sin.  But  if  they  will  remit  none,  let  them 
look  how  they  will  give  account  to  God  for  this,  that  by 
their  obstinacy  they  afford  cause  of  division  and  schism, 
which  it  were  yet  fit  they  should  aid  in  avoiding."  ^  It  was 
not  that  he  believed  that  the  existence  of  the  visible  Catholic 
Church  depended  on  what  has  been  ambiguously  called  an 
apostolic  succession  of  bishops,  who,  through  gifts  conferred 
in  ordination,  create  priests,  who  in  turn  make  Christians 
out  of  natural  heathen  by  the  sacraments.  He  did  not 
believe  that  ordination  needed  a  bishop  to  confer  it ;  he 
made  his  position  clear  upon  this  point  as  early  as  1525, 
and  ordination  was  practised  without  bishops  from  that 
date.  But  he  had  no  desire  to  make  changes  for  the  sake 
of  change.  The  Danish  Church  is  at  once  episcopal  and 
Lutheran  to  this  day. 

It  ought  also  to  be  remembered  that  Luther  and  all 
the  Keformers  believed  and  held  firmly  the  doctrine  of  a 
visible  Catholic  Church  of  Christ,  and  that  the  evangelical 
movement  which  they  headed  was  the  outcome  of  the 
centuries  of  saintly  life  within  that  visible  Catholic 
Church.  They  never  for  a  moment  supposed  that  in 
withdrawing  themselv^es  from  the  authority  of  the  Bishop 

*  Schaff,  The  Creeds  of  the  Evangelical  Protestant  Churches,  p.  78t 


404        ORGANISATION   OF   LUTHERAN   CHURCmSS 

of  Eome  tliey  were  separating  themselves  from  the  visible 
Church.  Nor  did  they  imagine  that  in  making  provision, 
temporary  or  permanent,  for  preaching  the  word,  the  dis- 
pensation of  the  sacraments,  the  exercise  of  discipUne,  and 
80  forth,  they  were  founding  a  new  Church,  or  severing 
themselves  from  that  visible  Church  within  which  they  had 
been  baptized.  They  refused  to  concede  the  term  Catholic 
to  their  opponents,  and  in  the  various  conferences  which 
they  had  with  them,  the  Eoman  Catholics  were  always 
officially  designated  "  the  adherents  of  the  old  religion," 
while  they  were  termed  "  the  associates  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession." 

Luther  cherished  the  hope,  as  late  as  1545,  that  there 
might  not  need  to  be  a  permanent  change  in  the  external 
form  of  the  Church  in  Germany ;  and  this  gives  all  the 
earlier  schemes  for  the  organisation  of  communities  pro- 
fessing the  evangelical  faith  somewhat  of  a  makeshift  and 
temporary  appearance,  which  they  in  truth  possessed. 

The  Diet  of  Speyer  of  1526  gave  the  evangehcal 
princes  and  towns  the  right,  they  beheved,  to  reorganise 
public  worship  and  ecclesiastical  organisation  within 'their 
dominions,  and  this  right  was  largely  taken  advantage 
of.  Correspondents  from  all  quarters  asked  Luther's 
advice  and  co-operation,  and  we  can  learn  from  his 
answers  that  he  was  anxious  there  should  be  as  much 
local  freedom  as  possible, — that  communities  should  try 
to  find  out  what  suited  them  best,  and  that  the  "  use  "  of 
Wittenberg  should  not  be  held  to  regulate  the  custom  of 
all  other  places. 

It  was  less  difficult  for  the  authorities  in  the  towns  to  take 
over  the  charge  of  the  ecclesiastical  arrangements.  They 
had  during  mediaeval  times  some  experience  in  the  matter ; 
and  city  life  was  so  compact  that  it  was  easy  to  regulate 
the  ecclesiastical  portion.  The  prevailing  type  exhibited  in 
the  number  of  "  ordinances  "  which  have  come  down  to  us, 
collected  by  Eichter  and  Sehling,  is  that  a  su])erinteudent, 
one  of  the  city  clergy,  was  placed  ovei  the  city  churches, 
and  that  he  was  more  or  less  responsible  to  the  city  fatliera 


VISITATIONS  405 

for  the  ecclesiastical  life  and  rule  within  the  domains  of 
the  city. 

The  ecclesiastical  organisation  of  the  territories  of  the 
princes  was  a  much  more  difficult  task.  Luther  proposed 
to  the  Elector  of  Saxony  that  a  careful  visitation  of  his 
principahty  should  be  made,  district  by  district,  in  order 
to  find  out  the  state  of  matters  and  what  required  to  be 
done. 

The  correspondence  of  Luther  during  the  years  1525— 
1527  shows  how  urgent  the  need  of  such  a  visitation 
appeared  to  him.  He  had  been  through  the  country 
several  times.  Parish  priests  had  laid  their  difficulties 
before  him  and  had  asked  his  advice.  His  letters  describe 
graphically  their  abounding  poverty,  a  poverty  increased 
by  the  fact  that  the  only  application  of  the  new  evangelical 
liberty  made  by  many  of  the  people  was  to  refuse  to  pay 
all  clerical  dues.  He  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
"  common  man  "  respected  neither  priest  nor  preacher,  that 
there  was  no  ecclesiastical  supervision  in  the  country  dis- 
tricts, and  no  exercise  of  authority  to  maintain  even  the 
necessary  ecclesiastical  buildings.  He  expressed  the  fear 
that  if  things  were  allowed  to  go  on  as  they  were  doing, 
there  would  be  soon  neither  priest's  house  nor  schools  nor 
scholars  in  many  a  parish.  The  reports  of  the  first  Saxon 
Visitation  showed  that  Luther  had  not  exaggerated  matters.^ 
The  district  about  Wittenberg  was  in  much  better  order 
than  the  others ;  but  in  the  outlying  portions  a  very  bad 
state  of  things  was  disclosed.  In  a  village  near  Torgau 
the  Visitors  discovered  an  old  priest  who  was  hardly  able 
to  repeat  the  Creed  or  the  Lord's  Prayer,*  but  who  was 

*  Winter,  "Die  Kirclienvisitation  von  1528  im  Wittenberger  Kreise" 
{Zeitschrift  fiir  die  historische  Theologie,  xxxiii.  pp.  295-322) ;  and  VisitcUioru 
Protocolle  in  Ne%ben  Mittheilungen  dcs  thuring.-sdehs.  Oeschichts- Vierein  zu 
Halle,  IX.  ii.  pp.  78  fiF. 

2  The  Visitation  of  Bishop  Hooper  of  the  diocese  of  Gloucester,  made  in 
1551,  disclosed  a  worse  state  of  matters  in  England.  The  Visitor  put  these 
simple  questions  to  his  clergy :  "  How  many  commandments  are  there  1 
"Where  are  they  to  be  found  ?  Repeat  them.  What  are  the  Articles  of  the 
Christian  Faith  (the  Ajiostles'  Creed)  ?  Repeat  them.  Prove  them  from 
Scripture.     Repeat  the  Lord's  Prayer.     How  do  you  know  that  it  is  the 


406   ORGANISATION  OF  LUTHERAN  CHURCHES 

held  in  high  esteem  as  an  exorcist,  and  who  derived  a  good 
income  from  the  exercise  of  his  skill  in  combating  the  evil 
influences  of  witches.  Priests  had  to  be  evicted  for  gross 
immoralities.  Some  were  tavern-keepers  or  practised  other 
worldly  callings.  Village  schools  were  rarely  to  be  found. 
Some  of  the  peasants  complained  that  the  Lord's  Prayer 
was  so  long  that  they  could  not  learn  it ;  and  in  one  place 
the  Visitors  found  that  not  a  single  peasant  knew  any 
prayer  whatsoever. 

This  Saxon  Visitation  was  the  model  for  similar  ones 
made  in  almost  every  evangelical  principality,  and  its  re- 
ports serve  to  show  what  need  there  was  for  inquiry  and 
reorganisation.  The  lands  of  Electoral  Saxony  were  divided 
into  four  •*  circles,"  and  a  commission  of  theologians  and 
lawyers  was  appointed  to  undertake  the  duties  in  each 
circle.  The  Visitation  of  the  one  "  circle  "  of  Wittenberg, 
with  its  thirty-eight  parishes,  may  be  taken  as  an  example 
of  how  the  work  was  done,  and  what  kinds  of  alterations 
were  suggested.  The  commissioners  or  Visitors  were  Martin 
Luther  and  Justus  Jonas,  theologians,  with  Hans  Metzsch, 
Benedict  Pauli,  and  Johann  v.  Taubenheim,  jurists.  They 
began  in  October  1528,  and  spent  two  months  over  their 
task.  It  was  a  strictly  business  proceeding.  There  is  no 
account  of  either  Luther  or  Jonas  preaching  while  on  tour. 
The  Visitors  went  about  their  work  with  great  energy, 
holding  conferences  with  the  parish  priests  and  with  the 
representatives  of  the  community.  They  questioned  the 
priests  about  the  religious  condition  of  the  people — whether 
there  was  any  gross  and  open  immorality,  whether  the 
people  were  regular  in  their  attendance  at  church  and  in 
coming  to  the  communion.  They  asked  the  people  how 
the  priests  did  their  work  among  them — in  the  towns  their 
conferences  were  with  the  Rat\  and  in  the  country  dis- 

Lord's  t  Where  is  it  to  be  found  ? "  Three  hundred  and  eleven  clergymen 
were  asked  these  questions,  and  only  fifty  answered  them  all ;  out  of  the 
fifty,  nineteen  are  noted  as  having  answered  mediocriter.  Eight  could  not 
answer  a  single  one  of  them  ;  and  while  one  knew  that  the  number  of  the 
commandments  was  ten,  he  knew  nothing  else  [English  Historical  Betiew 
for  1904  (Jan.),  pp.  98 flF.]. 


THE   SAXON    VISITATION  407 

tricts  and  villages  with  the  male  heads  of  families.  Tlieir 
fiommon  work  was  to  find  out  what  was  being  done  for  the 
"  cure  of  souls,"  the  instruction  of  the  youth,  and  the  care 
of  the  poor.  By  "  cure  of  souls "  (Seelsorge)  they  meant 
preaching,  dispensation  of  the  sacraments,  catechetical 
instruction,  and  the  pastoral  visitation  of  the  sick.  It 
belonged  to  the  theologians  to  estimate  the  capacities  of 
the  pastors,  and  to  the  jurists  to  estimate  the  available 
income,  to  look  into  all  legal  difficulties  that  might  arise, 
and  especially  to  clear  the  entanglements  caused  by  the 
supposed  jurisdiction  of  convents  over  many  of  the  parishes. 
This  small  district  was  made  up  of  three  outlying  por- 
tions of  the  three  dioceses  of  Brandenburg,  Magdeburg,  and 
Meissen.  It  had  not  been  inspected  within  the  memory 
of  man,  and  the  results  of  episcopal  negligence  were  mani- 
fest. At  Klebitz  the  peasants  had  driven  away  the  parish 
clerk  and  put  the  village  herd  in  his  house.  At  Biilzig 
there  was  neither  parsonage  nor  house  for  parish  clerk,  and 
the  priest  was  non-resident.  So  at  Danna ;  where  the 
priest  held  a  benefice  at  Coswig,  and  was,  besides,  a  chaplain 
at  Wittenberg,  while  the  clerk  lived  at  Zahna.  The  par- 
sonages were  all  in  a  bad  state  of  repair,  and  the  local 
authorities  could  not  be  got  to  do  anything.  Eoofs  were 
leaking,  walls  were  crumbling,  it  was  believed  that  the 
next  winter's  frost  would  bring  some  down  bodily.  At 
Pratau  the  priest  had  built  all  himself — parsonage,  out- 
houses, stable,  and  byre.  All  these  things  were  duly 
noted  to  be  reported  upon.  As  for  the  priests,  the  com- 
plaints made  against  them  were  very  few  indeed.  In  one 
case  the  people  said  that  their  priest  drank,  and  was  con- 
tinually seen  in  the  public-house.  Generally,  however,  the 
complaints,  when  there  were  any,  were  that  the  priest  was 
too  old  for  his  work,  or  was  so  utterly  uneducated  that  he 
could  do  little  more  than  mumble  the  Mass.  There  was 
Scanty  evidence  that  the  people  understood  very  clearly 
the  evangelical  theology.  Partaking  the  Lord's  Supper  in 
both  "  kinds,"  or  in  one  only,  was  the  distinction  recognised 
und  appreciated  between  the  new  and  the  old  teaching ; 


408   ORGANISATION  OF  LUTHERAN  OHURCHKS 

and  when  they  had  the  choice  the  people  universally  pre- 
f erred  the  new.  In  one  case  the  parishioners  complained 
that  their  priest  insisted  on  saying  the  Mass  in  Latin  and 
not  in  German.  In  one  case  only  did  the  Visitors  find 
any  objection  taken  to  the  evangelical  service.  This  was 
at  Meure,  where  the  parish  clerk's  wife  was  reported  to  b( 
an  enemy  of  the  new  pastor  because  he  recited  the  service 
in  German.  It  turned  out,  however,  that  her  real  objection 
was  that  the  pastor  had  displaced  her  husband.  At  Bleddin 
the  peasants  told  the  Visitors  that  their  pastor,  Christopher 
Eichter,  was  a  learned  and  pious  man,  who  preached  regu- 
larly on  all  the  Sundays  and  festival  days,  and  generally 
four  times  a  week  in  various  parts  of  the  parish.  It 
appeared,  however,  that  their  admiration  for  him  did  not 
compel  them  to  attend  his  ministrations  with  very  great 
regularity.  The  energetic  pastors  were  all  young  men 
trained  at  Wittenberg.  The  older  men,  peasants'  sons  all 
of  them,  were  scarcely  better  educated  than  their  parish- 
ioners, and  were  quite  unable  to  preach  to  them.  The 
Visitors  found  very  few  parishes  indeed  where  three,  four, 
five  or  more  persons  were  not  named  to  them  who  never 
attended  church  or  came  to  the  Lord's  Table ;  in  some 
parishes  men  came  regularly  to  the  preaching  who  never 
would  come  to  the  Sacrament.  What  impressed  the 
Visitors  most  was  the  ignorance,  the  besotted  ignorance, 
of  the  people.  They  questioned  them  directly ;  found  out 
whether  they  knew  the  Apostles'  Creed,  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, and  the  Lord's  Prayer ;  and  then  questioned  them 
about  the  meanings  of  the  words ;  and  the  answers  were 
disappointing. 

Luther  came  back  from  the  Visitation  in  greatly  de- 
pressed spirits,  and  expressed  his  feelings  in  his  usual 
energetic  language.  He  says  in  his  introduction  to  his 
Small  Catechism,  a  work  he  began  as  soon  as  he  returned 
from  the  Visitation : 

"  In  setting  forth  this  Catechism  or  Christian  doctrine 
in  such  a  simple,  concise,  and  easy  form,  I  have  been  com- 
pel led  and  driven  by  the  wretched  and  lamentable  state  of 


THE    SAXON    VISITATION  409 

affairs  which  I  discovered  lately  when  I  acted  as  a  Visitor. 
Merciful  God,  what  misery  have  I  seen,  the  common  people 
knowing  nothing  at  all  of  Christian  doctrine,  especially  in 
the  villages !  and  unfortunately  many  pastors  are  well-nigh 
unskilled  and  incapable  of  teaching;  and  although  all  are 
called  Christians  and  partake  of  the  Holy  Sacrament,  they 
know  neither  the  Lord's  Prayer,  nor  the  Creed,  nor  the  Ten 
Commandments,  but  live  like  poor  cattle  and  senseless  swine, 
thoiigh,  now  that  the  gospel  is  come,  they  have  learnt  well 
enough  how  they  may  abuse  their  liberty.  Oh,  ye  bishops, 
how  will  ye  ever  answer  for  it  to  Christ  that  ye  have  so 
shamefully  neglected  the  people,  and  have  not  attended  for 
an  instant  to  your  office  ?  May  all  evil  be  averted  from 
you  !  (^Das  euch  alles  ungluck  fiiche).  Ye  forbid  the  taking 
of  the  Sacrament  in  one  kind,  and  insist  on  your  human 
laws,  but  never  inquire  whether  they  know  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  the  Belief,  the  Ten  Commandments,  or  any  of  the 
words  of  God.     Oh,  woe  be  upon  you  for  evermore  I " 

The  Visitors  found  that  few  books  were  to  be  seen  in 
the  parsonages.  They  record  one  notable  exception,  the 
parsonage  of  Schmiedeberg,  where  the  priest  had  a  library 
of  twelve  volumes.  It  could  not  be  expected  that  such 
uneducated  men  could  preach  to  much  edification;  and 
one  of  the  recommendations  of  the  Visitors  was  that  copies 
of  Luther's  Postils  or  short  sermons  on  the  Lessons  for  the 
Day  should  be  sent  to  all  the  parishes,  with  orders  that  they 
should  be  read  by  the  pastors  to  their  congregations. 

They  did  not  find  a  trace  anywhere  of  systematic 
pastoral  visitation  or  catechising. 

In  their  practical  suggestions  for  ending  the  priestly 
inefficiency,  the  Visitors  made  simple  and  homely  arrange- 
ments. To  take  one  example, — at  Liessnitz,  the  aged  pastor 
Conrad  was  quite  unable  from  age  and  ignorance  to  perform 
his  duties;  but  he  was  a  good,  inoffensive  old  man.  It 
was  arranged  that  he  was  to  have  a  coadjutor,  who  was  to  be 
boarded  by  the  rich  man  of  the  parish  and  get  the  fees,  while 
the  old  pastor  kept  the  parsonage  and  the  stipend,  out  of 
which  he  was  to  pay  fourteen  gulden  annually  to  his  coadjutor. 

The  Visitors  found  that  schools  did  not  exist  in  most 
of  the  villages,  and  they  were  disappointed  with  the  con- 


410   ORGANISATION  OF  LUTHERAN  CHURCHES 

dition  of  the  schools  they  found  in  the  smaller  towns.  It 
was  proposed  to  make  the  parish  clerks  the  village  school- 
masters; but  thej  were  wholly  incompetent,  and  the 
Visitors  saw  nothing  for  it  but  to  suggest  that  the  pastors 
must  become  the  village  schoolmasters.  The  parish  clerks 
were  ordered  to  teach  the  children  to  repeat  the  Small 
Catechism  by  rote,  and  the  pastors  to  test  them  at  a  cate- 
chising on  Sunday  afternoons.  In  the  towns,  where  the 
churches  usually  had  a  cantor  or  precentor,  this  official  was 
asked  to  train  the  children  to  sing  evangelical  hymns. 

In  their  inquiries  about  the  care  of  the  poor,  the  Visi- 
tors found  that  there  was  not  much  need  for  anything  to 
be  done  in  the  villages ;  but  the  case  was  different  in  the 
towns.  They  found  that  in  most  of  them  there  existed 
old  foundations  meant  to  benefit  the  poor,  and  they  dis- 
covered all  manner  of  misuses  and  misappropriations  of 
the  funds.  Suggestions  were  made  for  the  restoration  of 
these  funds  to  their  destined  uses. 

This  very  condensed  account  of  what  took  place  in  the 
Wittenberg  "  circle "  shows  how  the  work  of  the  Visitors 
was  done ;  a  second  and  a  third  Visitation  were  needed  in 
Electoral  Saxony  ere  things  were  properly  arranged ;  but  in 
the  end  good  work  was  accomplished.  The  Elector  refused 
to  take  any  of  the  confiscated  convent  lands  and  possessions 
for  civil  purposes,  and  these,  together  with  the  Church 
endowments,  provided  stipends  for  the  pastors,  salaries  for 
the  schoolmasters,  and  a  settled  provision  for  the  poor. 

When  the  Visitation  was  completed  and  the  reports 
presented,  the  Visitors  were  asked  to  draft  and  issue  an 
Instruction  or  lengthy  advice  to  the  clergy  and  people  of 
the  "  circle "  they  had  inspected.  This  Instruction  waa 
not  considered  a  regular  legal  document,  but  its  contents 
were  expected  to  be  acted  upon. 

These  Visitations  and  Instructions  were  the  earliest 
attempts  at  the  reorganisation  of  the  evangelical  Church 
in  Electoral  Saxony.  The  Visitors  remained  as  a  "  primitive 
evangelical  consistory  "  to  supervise  their  "  circles." 

The  Saxon  Visitations  became  a  model  for  most  of  the 


THE   SAXON    VISITATION  411 

North  German  evangelical  territorial  Churches,  and  the  In- 
structions form  the  earliest  collection  of  requirements  set 
forth  for  the  guidance  of  pastors  and  Christian  people. 
The  directions  are  very  minute.  The  pastors  are  told  how 
to  preach,  how  tt>  conduct  pastoral  visitations,  what  sins 
they  must  specially  warn  their  people  against,  and  what 
example  they  must  show  them.  The  care  of  schools  and 
of  the  poor  was  not  forgotten.^ 

The  fact  that  matrimonial  cases  during  the  Middle  Ages 
were  almost  invariably  tried  in  ecclesiastical  courts,  made 
it  necessary  to  provide  some  legal  authority  to  adjudicate 
upon  such  cases  when  the  mediaeval  episcopal  courts  had 
either  temporarily  or  permanently  lost  their  authority. 
This  led  to  a  provisional  arrangement  for  the  government 
of  the  Church  in  Electoral  Saxony,  which  took  a  regular 
legal  form.  A  pastor,  called  a  superintendent,  was  ap- 
pointed in  each  of  the  four  "circles"  into  which  the 
territory  had  been  divided  for  the  purpose  of  Visitation,  to 
act  along  with  the  ordinary  magistracy  in  all  ecclesiastical 
matters,  including  the  judging  in  matrimonial  cases.*  This 
Saxon  arrangement  also  spread  largely  through  the  northern 
German  evangelical  States. 

A  third  Visitation  of  Electoral  Saxony  was  made  in 
1532,  and  led  to  important  ecclesiastical  changes  which 
formed  the  basis  of  all  that  came  afterwards.  As  a  result 
of  the  reports  of  the  Visitors,  of  whom  Justus  Jonas  seems 
to  have  been  the  most  energetic,  the  parishes  were  re- 
arranged, the  incomes  of  parish  priests  readjusted,  and  the 
whole  ecclesiastical  revenues  of  the  mediaeval  Church  within 
Electoral  Saxony  appropriated  for  the  threefold  evangelical 
uses  of  supporting  the  ministry,  providing  for  schools,  and 
caring  for  the  poor.  The  doctrine,  ceremonies,  and  worship  of 
the  evangelical  Church  were  also  settled  on  a  definite  basis.* 

*  Sehling,  Die  evangelischen  Kirchenordnungen  des  16ten  Jahrhunderts 
(Leipzig,  1902),  i.  i.  142  ff.  *  /j^-^^  j,  ^  49, 

'  The  rites  and  ceremonies  of  worship  in  the  Lutheran  churches  are  given 
in  Daniel,  Codex  Liturgicus  Hcdesice  Lutheranas  in  epitomen  redactus,  which 
forms  the  second  volume  of  his  Codex  LitwrgicxLs  EcclesicB  Unwersce  (Leipzig, 
1848). 


412   ORGANISATION  OF  LUTHERAN  CHURCHES 

The  Visitors  pointed  out  that  hitherto  no  arrangement 
had  been  made  to  give  the  whole  ecclesiastical  administra- 
tion one  central  authority.  The  Electoral  Prince  had 
always  been  regarded  as  the  supreme  ruler  of  the  Church 
within  his  dominions,  but  as  he  could  not  personally 
superintend  everything,  there  was  needed  some  supreme 
court  which  could  act  in  all  ecclesiastical  cases  as  his 
representative  or  instrument.  The  Visitors  suggested  the 
revival  of  the  mediaeval  episcopal  consistorial  courts  modi- 
fied to  suit  the  new  circumstances.  Bishops  in  the  mediaeval 
sense  of  the  word  might  be  and  were  believed  to  be  super- 
fluous, but  their  true  function,  the  Jus  episcopate,  the  right 
of  oversight,  was  indispensable.    According  to  Luther's  ideas 

ideas  which  had  been  gaining  ground  in  Germany  from 

'  the  last  quarter  of  the  fifteenth  century — this  Jus  episcopale 
'belonged  to  the  supreme  secular  authority.  The  mediaeval 
bishop  had  exercised  his  right  of  oversight  through  a  con- 
sistorial court  composed  of  theologians  and  canon  lawyers 
appointed  by  himself.  These  mediaeval  courts,  it  was  sug- 
gested, might  be  transformed  into  Lutheran  ecclesiastical 
courts  if  the  prince  formed  a  permanent  council  composed 
of  lawyers  and  divines  to  act  for  him  and  in  his  name  in 
all  ecclesiastical  matters,  including  matrimonial  cases.  The 
Visitors  sketched  their  plan ;  it  was  submitted  for  revision 
to  Luther  and  to  Chancellor  Briick,  and  the  result  was  the 
Wittenberg  Ecclesiastical  Consistory  established  in  1542.^ 
That  the  arrangement  was  still  somewhat  provisional  ap- 
pears from  the  fact  that  the  court  had  not  jurisdiction 
over  the  whole  of  the  Electoral  dominions,  and  that 
other  two  Consistories,  one  at  Zeitz  and  the  other  at 
Zwickau,  were  established  with  similar  powers.  But  the 
thing  to  be  observed  is  that  these  courts  were  modelled  on 
the  old   mediaeval  consistorial  episcopal  courts,  and  that, 

*  The  ordinance  establishing  the  Wittenberg  Consistory  will  be  found 
in  Richter,  Die  evangelischen  Kirchenordnungen  des  sechszehnten  Jahrhun- 
derts  (Weimar,  1846),  L  367  ;  and  in  Sehling,  Die  evangelischen  Kirchen- 
ordnungen des  IGten  Jahrhunderts  (Leipzig,  1902),  i.  i  200.  Sehling  sketchet 
the  history  of  its  institution,  i.  i.  55. 


CONSISTORIAL   COURTS  413 

like  them,  they  were  composed  of  lawyers  and  of  theo- 
logians. The  essential  difference  was  that  these  Lutheran 
courts  were  appointed  by  and  acted  in  the  name  of  the 
supreme  secular  authority.  In  Electoral  Saxony  their 
local  bounds  of  jurisdiction  did  not  correspond  to  those 
of  the  media3val  courts.  It  was  impossible  that  they 
should.  Electoral  Saxony,  the  ordinance  erecting  the  Con- 
sistory itself  says,  consisted  of  portions  of  "  ten  or  twelve  " 
mediaeval  dioceses.  The  courts  had  different  districts 
assigned  to  them ;  but  in  all  other  things  they  reproduced 
the  mediaeval  consistorial  courts. 

The  constitutions  of  these  courts  provided  for  the 
a,ssembling  and  holding  of  Synods  to  deliberate  on  the 
affairs  of  the  Church.  The  General  Synod  consisted  of  the 
Consistory  and  the  superintendents  of  the  various  "  circles  " ; 
and  particular  Synods,  which  had  to  do  with  the  Church 
affairs  of  the  "circle,"  of  the  superintendent,  and  of  all 
the  clergy  of  the  "  circle." 

Such  were  the  beginnings  of  the  consistorial  system 
of  Church  government,  which  is  a  distinctive  mark  of  the 
Lutheran  Church,  and  which  exhibits  some  of  the  indi- 
vidual traits  of  Luther's  personality.  We  can  see  in  it 
his  desire  to  make  full  use  of  whatever  portions  of  the 
mediaeval  Church  usages  could  be  pressed  into  the  service 
of  his  evangelical  Church ;  his  conception  that  the  one 
supreme  authority  on  earth  was  that  of  the  secular  govern- 
ment ;  his  suspicion  of  the  "  common  "  man,  and  his  resolve 
to  prevent  the  people  exercising  any  control  over  the 
arrangements  of  the  Church. 

Gradually  all  the  Lutheran  Churches  have  adopted,  in 
general  outline  at  least,  this  consistorial  system ;  but  it 
would  be  a  mistake  to  think  that  the  Wittenberg  "  use  " 
was  adopted  in  all  its  details.  Luther  himself,  as  has 
been  said,  had  no  desire  for  anything  like  uniformity,  and 
there  was  none  in  the  beginning.  All  the  schemes  of 
ecclesiastical  government  proceed  on  the  idea  that  the 
jvs  episcopcUe  or  right  of  ecclesiastical  oversight  belongs  to 
the  supreme  territorial  secular   authority.      All  of  tbem 


414        ORGANISATION    OF    LUTHERAN    CHURCHES 

include  within  the  one  set  of  ordinances,  provisions  for  the 
support  of  the  ministry,  for  the  maintenance  of  schools,  and 
for  the  care  of  the  poor — the  last  generally  expressed  by 
regulations  about  the  "  common  chest."  The  great  variety 
of  forms  of  ecclesiastical  government  drafted  and  adopted 
may  be  studied  in  Eichter's  collection,  which  includes  one 
hundred  and  seventy  -  two  separate  ecclesiastical  consti- 
tutions, and  which  is  confessedly  very  imperfect.  The 
gradual  growth  of  the  organisation  finally  adopted  in  each 
city  and  State  can  be  traced  for  a  portion  of  Germany  in 
Sehling's  unfinished  work.^ 

The  number  of  these  ecclesiastical  ordinances  is 
enormous,  and  the  quantity  is  to  be  accounted  for  partly 
by  the  way  in  which  Germany  was  split  up  into  numerous 
small  States  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  also  partly  by 
the  fact  that  Luther  pled  strongly  for  diversity. 

The  ordinances  were  promulgated  in  many  different 
ways.  Most  frequently,  perhaps,  the  prince  published  and 
enacted  them  on  his  own  authority  like  any  other  piece  of 
territorial  legislation.  Sometimes  he  commissioned  a  com- 
mittee acting  in  his  name  to  frame  and  publish.  In 
other  cases  they  resulted  from  a  consultation  between  the 
prince  and  the  magistrates  of  one  of  the  towns  within  his 
dominions.  Sometimes  they  came  from  the  councils  and 
the  pastors  of  the  towns  to  which  they  applied.  In  other 
instances  they  were  issued  by  an  evangelical  bishop.  And 
in  a  few  cases  they  are  simply  the  regulations  issued  by  a 
single  pastor  for  his  own  parish,  which  the  secular  author- 
ities did  not  think  of  altering. 

Although  they  are  independent  one  from  another, 
they  may  be  grouped  in  families  which  resemble  each  other 
closely.* 

Some  of  the  territories  reached  the  consistorial  system 

*  The  first  half  of  the  first  part  of  Sehling's  Die  evangelischen  Kircheiin 
or&nungen  des  16  Jahrhunderts  appeared  in  1902,  and  the  second  half  of  th« 
first  part  in  1904. 

"  Cf.  article  on  "Kirchen-Ordnung"  in  the  8rd  edition  of  Heizoga 
Bealencyclopddie fur  protestantische  Theologie. 


ORGANISATION   IN   HESSB  415 

much  sooner  than  others.  If  a  principality  consisted  in 
whole  or  in  part  of  a  secularised  ecclesiastical  State,  the 
machinery  of  the  consistorial  court  lay  ready  to  the  hand 
of  the  prince,  and  was  at  once  adapted  to  the  use  of  the 
evangelical  Church.  The  system  was  naturally  slowest  to 
develop  in  the  imperial  cities,  most  of  which  at  first  pre- 
ferred an  organisation  whose  outlines  were  borrowed  from 
the  constitution  drafted  by  Zwingli  for  Zurich. 

Once  only  do  we  find  an  attempt  to  give  an  evan^ 
gelical  Church  occupying  a  large  territory  a  democratic 
constitution.  It  was  made  by  Philip,  Landgrave  of  Hesse, 
who  was  never  afraid  of  the  democracy.  No  German 
prince  had  so  thoroughly  won  the  confidence  of  his  com- 
monalty. The  Peasants'  War  never  devastated  his  do- 
minions. He  did  not  join  in  the  virulent  persecution  of 
the  Anabaptists  which  disgraced  the  Lutheran  as  well  as 
the  Koman  Cathohc  States  during  the  latter  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  It  was  natural  that  Luther's  earlier 
ideas  about  the  rights  of  the  Christian  community  (Gemeinde) 
should  appeal  to  him.  In  1526  (Oct.  6th),  when  the  Diet 
of  Speyer  had  permitted  the  organisation  of  evangelical 
Churches,  Philip  summoned  a  Synod  at  Homberg,  and  in- 
vited not  merely  pastors  and  ecclesiastical  lawyers,  but 
representatives  from  the  nobles  and  from  the  towns.  A 
scheme  for  ecclesiastical  government,  which  had  been  drafted 
by  Francis  Lambert,  formerly  a  Franciscan  monk,  was  laid 
before  the  assembly  and  adopted.  It  was  based  on  the  idea 
that  the  word  of  God  is  the  only  supreme  rule  to  guide 
and  govern  His  Church,  and  that  Canon  Law  has  no  place 
whatsoever  within  an  evangelical  Church.  Scripture  teaches, 
the  document  explains,  that  it  belongs  to  the  Christian  com- 
munity itself  to  select  and  dismiss  pastors  and  to  exercise 
discipline  by  aaeans  of  excommunication.  The  latter  right 
ought  to  be  used  in  a  weekly  meeting  (on  Sundays)  of  the 
congregation  and  pastor.  For  the  purposes  of  orderly  rule 
the  Church  must  have  office-bearers,  who  ought  to  conform 
as  nearly  as  possible  to  those  mentioned  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment Scriptures.     They  are  bishops  (pastors),  elders,  and 


416       ORGANISATION   OF   LUTHERAN   CHURCHES 

deacons ;  and  the  deacons  are  the  guardians  of  the  poor 
as  well  as  ecclesiastical  officials.  All  these  office-bearers 
must  remember  that  their  function  is  that  of  servants, 
and  in  no  sense  lordly  or  magisterial.  They  ought  to  be 
chosen  by  the  congregation,  and  set  apart  by  the  laying 
on  of  hands  according  to  apostolic  practice.  A  bishop 
(pastor)  must  be  ordained  by  at  least  three  pastors,  and  a 
deacon  by  the  pastor  or  by  two  elders.  The  government 
of  the  whole  Church  ought  to  be  in  the  hands  of  a  Synod, 
to  consist  of  all  the  pastors  and  a  delegate  from  every 
parish.  Such  in  outhne  was  the  democratic  ecclesiastical 
government  proposed  for  the  territory  of  Hesse  and  ac- 
cepted by  the  Landgrave.^  He  was  persuaded,  however,  by 
Luther's  strong  remonstrances  to  abandon  it.  There  is  nc 
place  for  the  democratic  or  representative  element  in  the 
organisation  of  the  Lutheran  Churches. 

^  Eichter,  Die  evangelUehen  Kirchcnordnwngtm,,  etc  i.  §6  C 


CHAPTER  V[I. 

THE   LUTHERAN   KEFORMATION  OUTSIDE   GERMANY.^ 

The  influence  of  Liitlier  went  far  beyond  Germany.  It 
was  felt  in  England,  France,  Scotland,  Holland,  Poland, 
and  Scandinavia.  England  went  her  own  peculiar  way ; 
France,  Holland,  and  Scotland,  in  the  end,  accepted  the 
leadership  of  Calvin ;  the  Lutheran  Eeformation,  outside 
Germany,  was  really  confined  to  Scandinavia  alone. 

In  these  Scandinavian  lands  the  religious  awakening 
was  bound  up  with  political  and  social  movements  more 
than  in  any  other  countries.  The  reformation  in  the 
Church  was,  indeed,  begun  by  men  who  had  studied  under 
Luther  at  Wittenberg,  or  who  had  received  their  first 
promptings  from  his  writings ;  but  it  was  carried  on  and 
brought  to  a  successful  issue  by  statesmen  who  saw  in  it 
the  means  to  deliver  their  land  from  political  anarchy, 
caused  by  the  overweening  independence  and  turbulence  of 
the  great  ecclesiastical  lords,  and  who  were  almost  com- 
pelled to  look  to  the  large  possessions  of  the  Church  as 
a  means  to  replenish  their  exhausted  treasuries  without 
ruining  the  overburdened  taxpayers. 

When  Eric  was  crowned  King  of  Denmark,  Sweden, 
and  Norway  in  1397,  the  assembled  nobles,  representative 

*  Sources  :  Baazius,  Inventarium  Eccles.  Sveogothorum  (1642) ;  Pon- 
toppidan,    Annales   ecelesice    Danicce,    bks.    ii,    iii.    (Copenhagen,    1744, 

1747). 

Later  Books  :  Lau,  Gcsrhichte  der  Reformation  in  ScJdrsivig- Holslein 
(Hamburg,  1867) ;  Willson,  History  of  Church  and  State  in  Norway  (London, 
1903) ;  Watson,  The  Swedish  Eevolution,  under  Oustavus  Vasa  (Cambridge, 
Massachusetts,  1889);  Wiedliug,  Schwedische  Geschichte  im  Zeitalter  der 
Reformation  (Gotha,  1882) ;  Cambridge  Modem  History ^  ii.  xvii.  (Cambridge, 
1903). 

27* 


418   LUTHERAN  REFORMATION  OUTSIDE  GERMANY 

of  the  three  kingdoms,  agreed  to  the  celebrated  Union  of 
Kalmar,  which  declared  that  the  three  lands  were  to  be 
for  ever  united  under  one  sovereign.  The  treaty  was 
purely  dynastic,  its  terms  were  vague,  and  it  was  never 
very  effective.  Without  going  into  details,  it  may  be  said 
that  the  king  lived  in  Denmark,  and  ruled  in  the  interests 
of  that  country ;  that  he  also  may  be  said  to  have  ruled 
in  Norway ;  but  that  in  Sweden  his  authority  was  merely 
nominal,  and  sometimes  not  even  that.  In  Denmark  itself, 
monarchical  government  was  difficult.  The  Scandinavian 
kingship  was  elective,  and  every  election  was  an  oppor- 
tunity for  reducing  the  privileges,  authority,  and  wealth  of 
the  sovereign,  and  for  increasing  those  of  the  nobles  and 
of  the  great  ecclesiastics,  who,  being  privileged  classes,  were 
freed  from  contributing  to  the  taxation. 

In  1513,  Christian  IL,  the  nephew  of  the  Elector  of 
Saxony,  and  the  brother-in-law  of  the  Emperor  Charles  v. 
(1515),  came  to  the  throne,  and  his  accession  marks  the 
beginning  of  the  new  era  which  was  to  end  with  the 
triumph  of  the  Eeformation  in  all  three  countries.  Chris- 
tian was  a  man  of  great  natural  abilities,  with  a  profound 
sense  of  the  miserable  condition  of  the  common  people 
within  his  realms,  caused  by  the  petty  tyrannies  of  the 
nobles,  ecclesiastical  and  secular.  No  reigning  prince,  save 
perhaps  George,  Duke  of  Saxony,  could  compete  with  him 
in  learning;  but  he  was  cruel,  partly  from  nature  and 
partly  from  policy.  He  had  determined  to  estabhsh  his 
rule  over  the  three  kingdoms  whose  nominal  king  he 
was,  and  to  free  the  commonalty  from  their  oppression 
by  breaking  the  power  of  the  nobles  and  of  the  great 
Churchmen.  The  task  was  one  of  extreme  difficulty, 
and  he  was  personally  unsuccessful ;  but  his  efforts  laid 
the  foundation  on  which  successors  were  able  to  build 
securely. 

He  began  by  conquering  rebellious  Sweden,  and  dis- 
graced his  victory  by  a  treaclierous  massacre  of  Swedish 
notables  at  Stockholm  (1520), — a  deed  which,  in  the  end, 
led  to  the  complete  separation  of  Sweden  from  Denmark. 


IN    DENMARK  419 

After  having  thus,  as  he  imagined,  consolidated  his  power 
he  pressed  forward  bis  schemes  for  reform.  He  took  pains 
to  encourage  the  trade  and  agriculture  of  Denmark;  he 
patronised  learning.  He  wrote  to  his  uncle  (1519), 
Frederick,  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  to  send  him  preachers 
trained  by  Luther ;  and,  in  response  to  his  appeal,  received 
first  Martin  Eeinhard,  and  then  Andrew  Boden stein  of 
Carlstadt.  These  foreigners,  who  could  only  address  the 
people  through  interpreters,  did  not  make  much  impression ; 
but  reformation  was  pushed  forward  by  the  king.  He 
pubHshed,  on  his  own  authority,  two  sets  of  laws  deahng 
with  the  nobles  and  the  Church,  and  subjecting  both  to 
the  sovereign.  He  enacted  that  all  convents  were  to  be 
under  episcopal  inspection.  Non-resident  and  unlettered 
clergy  were  legally  aboKshed.  A  species  of  kingly  consis- 
torial  court  was  set  up  in  Copenhagen,  and  declared  to 
be  the  supreme  ecclesiastical  judicature  for  the  country ; 
and  appeals  to  Kome  were  forbidden.  It  can  scarcely  be 
said  that  these  laws  were  ever  in  operation.  A  revolt 
by  the  Jutlanders  gave  a  rallying  point  to  the  disaffection 
caused  by  the  proposed  reforms.  Christian  lied  from  Den- 
mark (1523),  and  spent  the  rest  of  his  hfe  in  exile  or  in 
prison.     His  law-books  were  burnt. 

The  Jutlanders  had  called  Frederick  of  Schleswig- 
Holstein,  Christian's  uncle,  to  the  throne,  and  he  was  recog- 
nised King  of  Denmark  and  of  Norway  in  1523.  He  had 
come  to  the  kingdom  owing  to  the  reaction  against  the 
reforms  of  his  nephew,  but  in  his  heart  he  knew  that  they 
were  necessary.  He  promised  to  protect  the  interests  of 
the  nobles,  and  to  defend  the  Church  against  the  advance 
of  Lutheran  opinions ;  but  he  soon  endeavoured  to  find  a 
means  of  evading  his  pledges.  He  found  it  when  he  pitted 
the  nobles  against  the  higher  clergy,  and  announced  that 
he  had  never  promised  to  support  the  errors  of  the  Church 
of  Kome.  At  the  National  Assembly  {Herredag)  at  Odense 
he  was  able  to  get  the  marriage  of  priests  permitted,  and 
a  decree  that  bishops  were  in  the  future  to  apply  to  the 
king  and  not  to  the  Pope  for  their  Pallium.     The  Eeforma- 


420      LUTHERAN   REFORMATION   OUTSIDE   GERMANY 

tion  had  now  native  preachers  to  support  it,  especially  Hana 
Tausen,  who  was  called  the  Danish  Luther,  and  they  were 
encouraged  by  the  king.  At  the  Herredag  at  Copenhagen 
in  1530,  twenty-one  of  these  Lutheran  preachers  were 
summoned,  at  the  instigation  of  the  bishops,  and  formal 
accusations  were  made  against  them  for  preaching  heresy. 
Tausen  and  his  fellows  produced  a  confession  of  faith  in 
forty-three  articles,  all  of  which  he  and  his  companions 
offered  to  defend.  A  public  disputation  was  proposed,  which 
did  not  take  place  because  the  Eomanist  party  refused  to 
plead  in  the  Danish  language.  This  refusal  was  inter- 
preted by  the  people  to  mean  that  they  were  afraid 
to  discuss  in  a  language  which  everyone  understood. 
Lutheranism  made  rapid  progress  among  all  classes  of  the 
population. 

i  On  Frederick's  death  there  was  a  disputed  succession, 
!  which  resulted  in  civil  war.  In  the  end  Frederick's  son 
ascended  the  throne  as  Christian  iii..  King  of  Denmark 
and  Norway  (1536).  The  king,  who  had  been  present  at 
the  Diet  of  Worms,  and  who  had  learned  there  to  esteem 
Luther  highly,  was  a  strong  Lutheran,  and  determined  to 
end  the  authority  of  the  Eomish  bishops.  He  proposed 
to  his  council  that  bishops  should  no  longer  have  any  share 
in  the  government,  and  that  their  possessions  should  be 
forfeited  to  the  Crown.  This  was  approved  of  not  merely 
by  the  council,  but  also  at  a  National  Asssembly  which 
met  at  Copenhagen  (Oct.  30th,  1536),  where  it  was  further 
declared  that  the  people  desired  the  holy  gospel  to  be 
preached,  and  the  whole  episcopal  authority  done  away 
with.  The  king  asked  Luther  to  send  him  some  one  to 
guide  his  people  in  their  ecclesiastical  matters.  Bugen- 
hagen  was  despatched,  came  to  Copenhagen  (1537),  and  took 
the  chief  ecclesiastical  part  in  crowning  the  king.  Seven 
superintendents  (who  afterwards  took  the  title  of  bishops) 
were  appointed  and  consecrated.  The  Eeformation  was 
carried  out  on  conservative  Lutheran  lines,  and  the  old 
ritual  was  largely  preserved.  Tausen's  Confession  was  set 
aside  in  favour  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  and  Luther's 


IN   SWEDEN  421 

Small  Catechism,  aud  the  Lutheran  Keformation  was 
thoroughly  and  legally  established. 

The  Keformation  also  became  an  accomplished  fact  in 
Norway  and  Iceland,  but  its  introduction  into  these  lands 
was  much  more  an  act  of  kiugly  authority. 

After  the  massacre  of  Swedish  notables  in  Stockholm 
(Nov.  1520),  young  Gustaf  Ericsson,  commonly  known  as 
Gustaf  Vasa,  from  the  vasa  or  sheaf  which  was  on  his  coat 
of  arms,  raised  the  standard  of  revolt  against  Denmark. 
He  was  gradually  able  to  rally  the  whole  of  the  people 
around  him,  and  the  Danes  were  expelled  from  the  kingdom. 
In  1521,  Gustaf  had  been  declared  regent  of  Sweden,  and 
in  1523  he  was  called  by  the  voice  of  the  people  to  the 
throne.  He  found  himself  surrounded  by  almost  insuper- 
able difl&culties.  There  had  been  practically  no  settled 
government  in  Sweden  for  nearly  a  century,  and  every 
great  landholder  was  virtually  an  independent  sovereign. 
The  country  had  been  impoverished  by  long  wars.  Two- 
thirds  of  the  land  was  owned  by  the  Church,  and  the 
remaining  third  was  almost  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the 
secular  nobles.  Both  Church  and  nobles  claimed  exemp- 
tion from  taxation.  The  trade  of  the  country  was  in  the 
hands  of  foreigners — of  the  Danes  or  of  the  Hanse  Towns. 
Gustaf  had  borrowed  money  from  the  town  of  Lubeck 
for  his  work  of  liberation.  The  city  was  pressing  for 
repayment,  and  its  commissioners  followed  the  embarrassed 
monarch  wherever  he  went.  It  was  hopeless  to  expect  to 
raise  money  by  further  taxation  of  the  already  depressed 
and  impoverished  peasants. 

In  these  circumstances  the  king  turned  to  the  Church. 
He  compelled  the  bishops  to  give  him  more  than  one 
subsidy  (1522,  1523);  but  this  was  inadequate  for  his 
needs.  The  Church  property  was  large,  and  the  king 
planned  to  overthrow  the  ecclesiastical  aristocracy  by  the 
help  of  the  Lutheran  Eeformation. 

Lutheranism  had  been  making  progress  in  Sweden. 
Two  brothers,  Olaus  and  Laurentius  Petri,  sons  of  a  black- 
smith at  Orebro,  had  been  sent  by  their  father  to  study 


422   LUTHERAN  REFORMATION  OUTSIDE  GERMANY 

in  Germany.  They  had  meant  to  attend  the  University 
of  Leipzig ;  but,  attracted  by  the  growing  fame  of  Luther, 
they  had  gone  to  Wittenberg,  and  had  become  enthusiastic 
disciples  of  the  Eeformer.  On  their  return  to  Sweden 
(1519)  they  had  preached  Lutheran  doctrine,  and  had 
made  many  converts — among  others,  Laurentius  Andrese, 
Archdeacon  at  Strengnas.  In  spite  of  protests  from  the 
bishops,  these  three  men  were  protected  by  the  king. 
Olaus  Petri  was  especially  active,  and  made  long  preach- 
ing tours,  declaring  that  he  taught  the  pure  gospel  which 
"Ansgar,  the  apostle  of  the  North,  had  preached  seven 
hundred  years  before  in  Sweden." 

Gustaf  brought  Olaus  to  Stockholm  (1524),  and  made 
him  town-clerk  of  the  city ;  his  brother  Laurentius  was 
appointed  professor  of  theology  at  L^psala ;  Laurentius 
Andreae  was  made  Archdeacon  of  Upsala  and  Chancellor 
of  Sweden.  When  the  bishops  demanded  that  the  Ke- 
formers  should  be  silenced,  Olaus  challenged  them  to  a 
public  disputation.  The  challenge  was  refused ;  but  in  1524 
a  disputation  was  arranged  in  the  king's  palace  in  Stockholm 
between  Olaus  and  Dr.  Galle,  who  supported  the  old  re- 
ligion. The  conference,  which  included  discussion  of  the 
doctrines  of  Justification  by  Faith,  Indulgences,  the  Mass, 
Purgatory,  and  the  Temporal  Power  of  the  Pope,  had  the 
effect  of  strengthening  the  cause  of  the  Eeformation.  In 
1525,  Olaus  defied  the  rules  of  the  mediaeval  Church  by 
publicly  marrying  a  wife.  The  same  year  the  king  called 
for  a  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  Swedish,  and  in 
1526  Laurentius  Petri  published  his  New  Testament.  A 
translation  of  the  whole  Bible  was  edited  by  the  same 
scholar,  and  published  1540—1541.  These  translations, 
especially  that  of  the  New  Testament,  became  very  popular, 
and  the  people  with  the  Scripture  in  their  hands  were 
able  to  see  whether  the  teaching  of  the  preachers  or 
of  the  bishops  was  most  in  accordance  with  the  Holy 
Scriptures. 

There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  king  did  not 
lake  the  side  of  the  Lutheran  Eeformation  from  genuine 


IN   SWEDEN  423 

conviction.  He  had  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  brothers 
Petri  before  he  was  called  to  be  the  deliverer  of  his  country. 
But  it  is  unquestionable  that  his  financial  embarrassment 
whetted  his  zeal  for  the  reformation  of  the  Church  in 
Sweden.  Matters  were  coming  to  a  crisis,  which  was 
reached  in  1 527.  At  the  Diet  in  that  year,  the  Chancellor, 
in  the  name  of  the  king,  explained  the  need  for  an  increased 
revenue,  and  suggested  that  ecclesiastical  property  was  the 
only  source  from  which  it  could  be  obtained.  The  bishops, 
Johan  Brask,  Bishop  of  Linkoeping,  at  their  head,  replied 
that  they  had  the  Pope's  orders  to  defend  the  property  of 
the  Church.  The  nobles  supported  them.  Then  Gustaf 
presented  his  ultimatum.  He  told  the  Diet  plainly  that 
they  must  submit  to  the  proposals  of  the  Chancellor  or 
accept  his  resignation,  pay  him  for  his  property,  return 
him  the  money  he  had  spent  in  defence  of  the  kingdom, 
and  permit  him  to  leave  the  country  never  to  return.  The 
Diet  spent  three  days  in  wrangling,  and  then  submitted 
to  his  wishes.  The  whole  of  the  ecclesiastical  property — 
episcopal,  capitular,  and  monastic — which  was  not  absolutely 
needed  for  the  support  of  the  Church  was  to  be  placed 
in  the  hands  of  the  king.  Preachers  were  meanwhile  to 
set  forth  the  pure  gospel,  until  a  conference  held  in 
presence  of  the  Diet  would  enable  that  assembly  to  come 
to  a  decision  concerning  matters  of  religion.  The  Diet 
went  on,  without  waiting  for  the  conference,  to  pass  the 
twenty-four  regulations  which  made  the  famous  Ordinances 
of  Vesteras,  and  embodied  the  legal  Eeformation.  They 
contained  provisions  for  secularising  the  ecclesiastical  pro- 
perty in  accordance  with  the  previous  decision  of  the  Diet ; 
declared  that  the  king  had  the  right  of  vetoing  the  deci- 
sions of  the  higher  ecclesiastics ,  that  the  appointment  of 
the  parish  clergy  was  in  the  hands  of  the  bishops,  but  that 
the  king  could  remove  them  for  inefficiency ;  that  the 
pure  gospel  was  to  be  taught  in  every  school;  and  that 
auricular  confession  was  no  longer  compulsory. 

While  the  Ordinances  stripped  the  Swedish  Church  of 
a  large  amount  of  its  DroDerty  and  made  it  subject  to  the 


424      LUTHERAN   REFORMATION   OUTSIDE   GERMANY 

king,  they  did  not  destroy  its  episcopal  organisation,  nor 
entirely  impoverish  it.  Most  of  the  monasteries  were  de- 
serted when  their  property  was  taken  away.  The  king  knew 
that  the  peasantry  scarcely  understood  the  Reformed  doc- 
trines, and  had  no  wish  to  press  them  unduly  on  his  people. 
For  the  same  reason  the  old  ceremonies  and  usages  which 
did  not  flagrantly  contradict  the  new  doctrines  were  suffered 
to  remain,  and  given  an  evangelical  meaning.  The  first 
evangehcal  Hymn-book  was  pubUshed  in  1530,  and  the 
Swedish  "Mass"  in  1531,  both  drafted  on  Lutheran 
modela  Laurentius  Andreae  was  made  Archbishop  of 
Upsala  (1527),  and  a  National  Synod  was  held  under  his 
presidency  at  Orebro  (1528),  which  guided  the  Eeformation 
according  to  strictly  conservative  Lutheran  ideals.  Thus 
before  the  death  of  Gustaf  Vasa,  Sweden  had  joined  the 
circle  of  Lutheran  Churches,  and  its  people  were  slowly 
coming  to  understand  the  principles  of  the  Reformation. 
The  Reformation  was  a  very  peaceful  on&  No  one  suffered 
death  for  his  religious  opinions. 

The  fortunes  of  the  Swedish  Church  were  somewhat 
varied  under  the  immediate  successors  of  Gustavus.  His 
ill-fated  son  showed  signs  of  preferring  Calvinism,  and 
insisted  on  the  suppression  of  some  of  the  ecclesiastical 
festivals  and  some  of  the  old  rites  which  had  been  retained  ; 
but  these  attempts  ended  with  his  reign.  His  brother  and 
successor,  Johan  iii.,  took  the  opposite  extreme,  and  coquetted 
long  with  Rome,  and  with  proposals  for  reunion, — proposals 
which  had  no  serious  result.  When  Johan  died  in  1592, 
his  son  and  successor,  who  had  been  elected  King  of  Poland, 
and  had  become  a  Roman  Catholic,  aroused  the  fears  of 
his  Swedish  subjects  that  he  might  go  much  further  than 
his  father.  The  people  resolved  to  make  sure  of  their 
Protestantism  before  their  new  sovereign  arrived  in  the 
country.  A  Synod  was  convened  at  which  both  lay  and 
ecclesiastical  deputies  were  present.  The  members  first 
laid  down  the  general  rule  that  the  Holy  Scriptures  were 
their  supreme  doctrinal  standard,  and  then  selected  the 
Augsburg    Confession   as   the   Confession    of    the   Swedish 


IN    SWEDEN  426 

Church.  Luther's  SdkiII  Catecliisni;  wliich  liad  been  re- 
moved  from  the  schools  by  King  Johan  in.,  was  restored. 
This  meeting  at  Upsala  settled  for  the  future  the  ecclesi- 
astical poHty  of  Sweden.  The  country  showed  its  attach- 
ment to  the  stricter  Lutheranism  by  adopting  the  Formula 
of  Concord  in  1664. 


CHAPTER    VIIL 

THE   RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES  INSPIRING  THE 

REFORMATION.^ 

§  1.   The  Reformation  did  not  tahe  its  rise  from  a  Criticism 
of  Doctrines. 

The  whole  of  Luther's  religious  history,  from  his  entrance 
into  the  convent  at  Erfurt  to  the  publication  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  shows  that  the  movement  of  which 
he  was  tlie  soul  and  centre  did  not  arise  from  any  merely 
intellectual  criticism  of  the  doctrines  of  the  mediaeval 
Church,  and  that  it  resulted  in  a  great  deal  more  than  a 
revision  or  reconstruction  of  a  system  of  doctrinal  con- 
ceptions.2  There  is  no  trace  of  any  intellectual  difficulties 
about  doctrines  or  statement  of  doctrines  in  Luther's  mind 
during  the  supreme  crisis  of  his  history.  He  was  driven 
out  of  the  world  of  human  life  and  hope,  where  he  was 
well  fitted  to  do  a  man's  work,  by  the  overwhelming 
pressure  of  a  great  practical  religious  need — anxiety  to 
save  his  soul.  He  has  himself  said  that  the  proverb  that 
doubt  makes  a  monk  was  true  in  his  case.     He  doubted 

*  Dorner,  History  of  Protestant  Theology  (Edinburgh,  1871) ;  Kostlin, 
Luthers  Thcolvyie  in  ihrer  geschichtlichen  Bidwickelung  und  in  ihrem  innem 
Zusammenhange  (Stuttgart,  1883) ;  Theodor  Harnuck,  Luthers  Theologie  mii 
hesonderer  Beziehung  auf  seine  Versdhmtngs-  und  Erlosungslehre  (Erlangen, 
1862-1886);  A.  Ritschl,  The  Christian  Doctrine  of  Justification  and  Recon- 
ciiiation  (Edinburgh,  1872) ;  A.  Harnack,  History  of  Dogmas  vii.  (London, 
1899) ;  Loofs,  Leitfaden  zum  Studium  der  Dogmengeschichte  (Halle,  1893) ; 
Hemiiann,  Communion  with  God  (London,  1895) ;  Hering,  Die  Mystik 
Luthers  in  Zusammenhang  seiner  Theologie  (Leipzig,  1879) ;  Denifle,  Luther 
und  Lutherthum  in  der  ersten  EntwicUung,  vol.  i.  (Mainz,  1904),  ToL  iL 
(1905) ;  Walther,  Fur  Luther  wider  Rom  (Halle,  1906). 

*  Loofe,  Leitfaden,  etc.  p.  345. 

426 


NOT   DOCTRINE    BUT    RELIGIOUS   NEED  42? 

whether  he  could  save  his  soul  in  the  world,  and  was 
therefore  forced  to  leave  it  and  enter  the  convent. 

He  had  lost  whatever  evangelical  teaching  he  had 
learnt  in  childhood  or  in  Frau  Cotta's  household  at  Eise- 
nach. He  had  surrendered  himself  to  the  popular  belief, 
fostered  by  the  whole  penitential  system  of  the  mediaeval 
Church,  that  man  could  and  must  make  himself  fit  to 
receive  the  grace  of  God  which  procures  salvation.  The 
self-tortm^ing  cry,  "  Oh,  when  wilt  thou  become  holy  and 
fit  to  obtain  the  grace  of  God  ? "  {0  wenn  will  tu  einmal 
fromm  werden  und  genug  th\in  du  einen  gnddigen  Gott 
kriegest  ?),  drove  him  into  the  convent.  He  believed,  and 
the  almost  imanimous  opinion  of  his  age  agreed  with  him, 
that  there,  if  anywhere,  he  could  find  the  peace  he  was 
seeking  with  such  desperation. 

Inside  the  convent  he  applied  himself  with  all  the  force 
of  a  strong  nature,  using  every  means  that  the  complicated 
penitential  system  of  the  Church  had  provided  to  help 
him,  to  make  himself  pious  and  fit  to  be  the  receptacle 
of  the  grace  of  God.  He  submitted  to  the  orders  of  his 
superiors  with  the  blind  obedience  which  the  most  rigorous 
ecclesiastical  statutes  demanded ;  he  sought  the  comforting 
consolations  which  confession  was  declared  to  give ;  he 
underwent  every  part  of  the  complex  system  of  expiations 
which  the  mediaeval  Church  recommended;  he  made  full 
use  of  the  sacraments,  and  waited  in  vain  for  the  mysterious, 
inexplicable  experience  of  the  grace  which  was  said  to 
accompany  and  flow  from  them.  He  persevered  in  spite  of 
the  feeling  of  continuous  failure.  "  If  a  monk  ever  reached 
heaven  by  monkery,"  he  has  said,  "  I  would  have  found 
my  way  there  also ;  all  my  convent  comrades  will  bear 
witness  to  that."^  He  gave  a  still  stronger  proof  of  his 
loyalty  to  tlie  mediaeval  Church  and  its  advice  to  men  in 
his  mood  of  mind ;  he  persevered  in  spite  of  the  knowledge 
that  his  comrades  and  his  religious  superiors  believed  him 
to  be  a  young  saint,  while  he  knew  that  he  was  far  other- 

1  Luther's  Works  (Erlangen  edition),  ixxL  273 ;  in  Die  Kleine  AnttooH 
a%f  Herzog  Otorgen  ndhestes  Buck. 


428  RELIGIOUS    PRINCIPLES 

wise,  and  that  he  was  no  nearer  God  than  he  had  been 
before  he  entered  the  monastery,  or  had  begun  his  quest 
after  the  sense  of  pardon  of  sin.  The  contrast  between 
what  his  brethren  thought  he  must  be  and  what  his  own 
experience  told  him  that  he  was,  must  have  added  bitter- 
ness to  the  cup  he  had  to  drink  during  these  terrible 
months  in  the  Erfurt  convent.     He  says  himself : 

"After  I  had  made  the  profession,  I  was  congratulated 
by  the  prior,  the  convent,  and  the  father-confessor,  because 
I  was  now  an  innocent  child  coming  pure  from  baptism. 
Assuredly,  I  would  willingly  have  delighted  in  the  glorious 
fact  that  I  was  such  a  good  man,  who  by  his  own  deeds  and 
without  the  merits  of  Christ's  blood  had  made  himself  so 
fair  and  holy,  and  so  easily  too,  and  in  so  short  a  time.  But 
although  I  listened  readily  to  the  sweet  praise  and  glowing 
language  about  myself  and  my  doings,  and  allowed  myself  to 
be  described  as  a  wonder-worker,  who  could  make  himself 
holy  in  such  an  easy  way,  and  could  swallow  up  death,  and 
the  devil  also,  yet  there  was  no  power  in  it  all  to  maintain 
me.  When  even  a  small  temptation  came  from  sin  or  death 
I  fell  at  once,  and  found  that  neither  baptism  nor  monkery 
could  assist  me ;  I  felt  that  I  had  long  lost  Christ  and  His 
baptism.  I  was  the  most  miserable  man  on  earth ;  day  and 
night  there  was  only  waiUng  and  despair,  and  no  one  could 
restrain  me."  ^ 

He  adds  that  all  he  knew  of  Christ  at  this  time  was 
that  He  was  "  a  stern  judge  from  whom  I  would  fain  have 
fled  and  yet  could  not  escape." 

During  these  two  years  of  anguish,  Luther  believed  that 
he  was  battling  with  himself  and  with  his  sin ;  he  was 
really  struggling  with  the  religion  of  his  times  and  Church. 
He  was  probing  it,  testing  it,  examining  all  its  depths, 
wrestling  with  all  its  means  of  grace,  and  finding  that 
what  were  meant  to  be  sources  of  comfort  and  consolation 
were  simply  additional  springs  of  terror.  He  was  too 
clear-sighted,  his  spiritual  senses  were  too  acute,  he  was 
too  much  in  deadly  earnest,  not  to  see  that  none  of  these 
aids  were  leading  him  to  a  solid  ground  of  certainty  on 

*  LiUher's  Works  (Erlangeu  edition),  xxxi.  278,  279. 


FAITH  429 

which  he  could  base  his  hopes  for  time  and  for  eternity ; 
and  he  was  too  honest  with  himself  to  be  persuaded  that 
he  was  otherwise  than  his  despair  told  him.^ 

At  length,  guided  in  very  faltering  fashion  by  the 
Scriptures,  especially  by  the  Psalms  and  the  Epistle  to 
the  Komans,  by  the  Apostles*  Creed,  and  by  fellow  monks, 
he  (to  use  his  own  words)  came  to  see  that  the  righteous- 
ness of  God  (Rom.  i.  17)  is  not  the  righteousness  by 
which  a  righteous  God  punishes  the  unrighteous  and 
sinners,  but  that  by  which  a  merciful  God  justifies  us 
through  faith  (not  justitia,  qua  deus  Justus  est  et  peccatores 
injustosque  pimit,  but  that  qua  nos  deus  misericors  justificat 
per  fidemy  By  faithy  he  says.  What,  then,  did  he  mean 
by  "  faith  "  ? 

He  replies : 

"There  are  two  kinds  of  believing:   first,  a  believing 

about  God  which  means  that  I  believe  that  what  is  said  of 
God  is  true.  This  faith  is  rather  a  form  of  knowledge  than 
a  faith.  There  is,  secondly,  a  believing  in  God  which  means 
that  I  put  my  trust  in  Him,  give  myself  up  to  thinking  that 
I  can  have  dealings  with  Him,  and  believe  without  any 
doubt  that  He  will  be  and  do  to  me  according  to  the  things 
said  of  Him.  Such  faith,  which  throws  itself  upon  God, 
whether  in  life  or  in  death,  alone  makes  a  Christian  man."  ^ 

The  faith  which  he  prized  is  that  religious  faculty  which 
"  throws  itself  upon  God " ;  and  from  the  first  Luther 
recognised  that  faith  of  this  kind  was  a  direct  gift  from 
God.  Having  it  w^e  have  everything;  without  it  we  have 
nothiug.  Here  we  find  something  entirely  new,  or  at  least 
hitherto  unexpressed,  so  far  as  mediaeval  theology  was 
concerned.  Mediaeval  theologians  had  recognised  faith  in 
the  sense  of  what  Luther  called  friyida  opinio^  and  it  is 
difficult    to   conceive    that    they   did    not    also    indirectly 

*  Harnack,  History  of  Dogma,  vii.  182. 
2  Loofs,  Leitfaden,  etc.  p.  346. 

*  Luther' 8  Works  (Erlangen  edition),  xxiL  15.  Cf.  xlviii.  6:  "If  thou 
holdest  faith  to  be  simply  a  thought  concerning  God,  then  that  thought  if 
as  little  able  to  give  eternal  life  as  ever  a  monkish  oowl  ooold  give  it." 


430  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

acknowledge  that  there  must  be  something  like  trust  or 
fiduda ;  but  faith  with  them  was  simply  one  among  many 
huma^  efforts  all  equally  necessary  in  order  to  see  and 
know  Gdcl.  Luther  recognised  that  there  was  this  kind  of 
faith,  which  a  man  begets  and  brings  to  pass  in  himself  by 
assent  to  doctrines  of  some  sort.  But  he  did  not  think  much 
of  it.     He  calls  it  worthless  because  it  gives  us  nothing. 

"  They  think  that  faith  is  a  thing  which  they  may  have 
or  not  have  at  will,  like  any  other  natural  human  thing ;  so 
when  they  arrive  at  a  conclusion  and  say,  '  Truly  the 
doctrine  is  correct,  and  therefore  I  believe  it/  then  they 
think  that  this  is  faith.  Now,  when  they  see  and  feel  that 
no  change  has  been  wrought  in  themselves  and  in  others, 
and  that  works  do  not  follow,  and  they  remain  as  before 
in  the  old  nature,  then  they  think  that  the  faith  is  not 
good  enough,  but  that  there  must  be  something  more  and 
greater."  ^ 

The  real  faith,  the  faith  which  is  trust,  the  divine  gift 
which  impels  us  to  throw  ourselves  upon  God,  gives  us  the 
living  assurance  of  a  living  God,  who  has  revealed  Himself, 
made  us  see  His  loving  Fatherly  heart  in  Christ  Jesus ; 
and  that  is  the  Christian  religion  in  its  very  core  and 
centre.  The  sum  of  Christianity  is — (1)  God  manifest  in 
Christ,  the  God  of  grace,  accessible  by  every  Christian  man 
and  woman ;  and  (2)  unwavering  trust  in  Him  who  has 
given  Himself  to  us  in  Christ  Jesus, — unwavering,  because 
Christ  with  His  work  has  imdertaken  our  cause  and  made 
it  His. 

The  God  we  have  access  to  and  Whom  we  can  trust 
because  we  have  thrown  ourselves  upon  Him  and  have  found 
that  He  sustains  us,  is  no  philosophical  abstraction,  to  be 
described  in  definitions  and  argued  about  in  syllogisms. 
He  is  seen  and  known,  because  we  see  and  know  Christ 
Jesus.  "  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father." 
For  with  Luther  and  all  the  Keformers,  Christ  fills  the 
whole  sphere  of  God  ;  and  they  do  not  recognise  any 
theology  which  is  not  a  Christology. 

'  Luther'n  Works  (2nd  Erlangen  edition),  xiii.  801. 


FAITH  431 

The  faith  which  makes  us  throw  ourselves  upon  God  is 
no  mood  of  mere  mystical  abandonment  .It  is  our  very 
life,  as  Luther  was  never  tired  of  saying.  It  is  God  within 
us,  and  wells  forth  in  all  kinds  of  activities. 

"  It  is  a  living,  busy,  active,  powerful  thing,  faith ;  it  is 
impossible  for  it  not  to  do  us  good  continually.  It  never 
asks  whether  good  works  are  to  be  done ;  it  has  done  them 
before  there  is  time  to  ask  the  question,  and  it  is  always 
doing  thenL"^ 

Christianity  is  therefore  an  interwoven  tissue  of 
promises  and  prayers  of  faith.  On  the  one  side  there  is 
the  Father,  revealing  Himself,  sending  down  to  us  His 
promises  which  are  yea  and  amen  in  Christ  Jesus ;  and  on 
the  other  side  there  are  the  hearts  of  men  ascending  in 
faith  to  God,  receiving,  accepting,  and  resting  on  the 
promises  of  God,  and  on  God  who  always  gives  Himself  in 
His  promises. 

This  is  what  came  to  Luther  and  ended  his  long  and 
terrible  struggle.  He  is  unwearied  in  describing  it.  The 
descriptions  are  very  varied,  so  far  as  external  form  and 
expression  go, — now  texts  from  the  Psalms,  the  Prophets, 
or  the  New  Testament  most  aptly  quoted;  now  phrases 
borrowed  from  the  picturesque  language  of  the  mediaeval 
mystics;  now  sentences  of  striking,  even  rugged,  origin- 
ality; sometimes  propositions  taken  from  the  mediaeval 
scholastic  But  whatever  the  words,  the  meaning  is  always 
the  same. 

This  conception  of  what  is  meant  by  Christianity  is  the 
religious  soul  of  the  Eeformation.  It  contains  within  it  all 
the  distinctively  religious  principles  which  inspired  it.  It 
can  scarcely  be  called  a  dogma.  It  is  an  experience,  and 
the  phrases  which  set  it  forth  are  the  descriptions  of  an 
experience  which  a  human  soul  has  gone  through.  The 
thing  itself  is  beyond  exact  definition — as  all  deep  experi- 
ences are.  It  must  be  felt  and  gone  through  to  be 
known.      The    Eeformation    started    from    this    personal 

'  Luther's  WorTcs  (Erlangen  edition),  Ixiii,  126. 


432  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

experience  of  the  believing  Christian,  which  it  declared 
to  be  the  one  elemental  fact  in  Christianity  which  could 
never  be  proved  by  argument  and  could  never  be  dissolved 
away  by  speculation.  It  proclaimed  the  great  truth,  which 
had  been  universally  neglected  throughout  the  whole  period 
of  mediaeval  theology  by  everyone  except  the  Mystics,  that 
in  order  to  know  God  man  must  be  in  living  touch  with 
God  Himself.  Therein  lay  its  originality  and  its  power. 
Luther  rediscovered  religion  when  he  declared  that  the  truly 
Christian  man  must  cling  directly  aud  with  a  living  faith 
to  the  God  Who  speaks  to  him  in  Christ,  saying,  "  I  am  thy 
salvation."  The  earlier  Eeformers  never  forgot  this.  Luther 
proclaimed  his  discovery,  he  never  attempted  to  prove  it  by 
argument ;  it  was  something  self-evident — seen  and  known 
when  experienced. 

This  is  always  the  way  with  great  religious  pioneers  and 
leaders.  They  have  all  had  the  prophetic  gift  of  spiritual 
vision,  and  the  magnetic  speech  to  proclaim  what  they  have 
seen,  felt,  and  known.  They  have  all  had,  in  a  far-off  way, 
the  insight  and  manner  of  Jesus. 

When  our  Lord  appeared  amoug  men  claiming  to  be 
more  than  a  wise  man  or  a  prophet,  declaring  that  He  was 
the  Messiah,  the  Son  of  Man  and  the  Son  of  God,  when 
He  announced  that  all  men  had  need  of  Him,  and  that  He 
alone  could  save  and  redeem.  He  set  forth  His  claims  in 
a  manner  unique  among  founders  of  religions.  He  made 
them  calmly  and  as  a  matter  of  course.  He  never  ex- 
plained elaborately  why  He  assumed  the  titles  He  took. 
He  never  reasoned  about  His  position  as  the  only  Saviour. 
"^He  simply  announced  it,  letting  the  conviction  of  the  truth 
steal  almost  insensibly  into  the  minds  and  hearts  of  His 
followers  as  they  saw  His  deeds  and  heard  His  words.  He 
assumed  that  they  must  interpret  His  death  in  one  way 
only.  This  was  always  His  manner.  It  was  not  His  way 
to  explain  mysteries  our  curiosity  would  fain  penetrate.  He 
quietly  took  for  granted  many  things  we  would  hke  to  argue 
about.  His  sayings  came  from  One  who  lived  in  perpetual 
coramunion  with  the  Unseen  Father,  and  He  uttered  them 


GREAT  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS         433 

quietly  and  assuredly,  confident  that  they  carried  with  them 
their  own  self-evidencing  power. 

So  it  was  with  St.  Paul.  His  letters  and  sermons  are 
fuP  of  arguments,  no  doubt,  full  of  pleadings  and  persuasion, 
but  they  all  start  from  and  rest  upon  his  vision  of  the  living, 
risen  Saviour.  His  last  word  is  always,  "When  it  pleased 
God  to  reveal  His  Son  in  me  " ;  that  was  the  elemental  fact 
which  he  proclaimed  and  which  summed  up  everything,  the 
personal  experience  from  which  he  started  on  his  career  as 
an  apostle.  The  place  of  Athanasius  as  a  great  religious 
leader  has  been  obscured  by  his  position  as  a  theologian ; 
but  when  we  turn  to  his  writings,  where  do  we  find  less  of 
what  is  commonly  called  dogmatic  theology  ?  There  is 
argument,  reasoning,  searching  for  proofs  and  their  state  • 
raent ;  but  all  that  belongs  to  the  outworks  in  his  teaching. 
The  central  citadel  is  a  spiritual  intuition — I  know  that  my 
Saviour  is  the  God  Who  made  heaven  and  earth.  He  took 
his  stand  firmly  and  unflinchingly  on  that  personal  experi- 
ence, and  all  else  mattered  little  compared  with  the  funda- 
mental spiritual  fact.  It  was  not  his  arguments,  but  his 
unflinching  faith  that  convinced  his  generation. 

So  it  was  with  Augustine,  Bernard,^  Francis — so  it  has 
been  with  every  great  religious  leader  of  the  Christian 
people.  His  strength,  whether  of  knowledge,  or  conviction, 
or  sympathy, — his  driving  power,  if  the  phrase  may  be 
used, — has  always  come  from  direct  communion  with  the 
unseen,  and  rests  upon  the  fact,  felt  and  known  by  himself 
and  communicated  to  others  by  a  mysterious  sympathy, 
that  it  has  pleased  God  to  reveal  Christ  in  him  in  some 
way  or  other. 

^  The  case  of  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  is  especially  interesting,  for  we 
might  almost  call  him  two  men  in  one.  In  his  experimental  moods, 
when  he  is  the  great  revivalist  preacher,  exhibited  in  his  sermons  on 
the  Song  of  Songs  and  elsewhere,  everything  that  the  Christian  can  do, 
say,  or  think,  comes  from  the  revelation  of  God's  grace  within  the 
individual,  while  in  his  more  purely  theological  works  he  scarcely  ever 
frees  himself  from  the  entanglements  of  Scholastic  Theology.  The 
doubleness  in  Bernard  has  been  dwelt  upon  by  A.  Ritschl  in  his  Critical 
History  of  the  Christian  Doctrine  of  Justification  and  Reconciliation 
(Edinburgh,  1872),  pp.  95-101. 

28* 


434  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

So  it  was  with  Luther  and  the  Eeformation  in  which  he 
was  the  leader.  Its  driving  power  was  a  great  religious 
experience,  old,  for  it  has  come  to  the  people  of  God  in  all 
generations,  and  yet  new  and  fresh  as  it  is  the  nature  of  all 
such  experiences  to  be.  He  knew  that  his  life  was  hid 
with  Christ  in  God  in  spite  of  all  evil,  in  spite  of  sin  and 
sense  of  guilt.  His  old  dread  of  God  had  vanished,  and 
instead  of  it  there  had  arisen  in  his  heart  a  love  to  God  in 
answer  to  the  love  which  came  from  the  vision  of  the 
Father  revealing  Himself.  He  had  experienced  this,  and 
he  had  proclaimed  what  he  had  gone  through  ;  and  the 
experience  and  its  proclamation  were  the  foundation  on 
which  the  Eeformation  was  built.  Its  beginnings  were 
not  doctrinal  but  experimental. 

Doctrines,  indeed,  are  never  the  beginnings  of  things; 
they  are,  at  the  best,  storehouses  of  past  and  blessed  experi- 
ences. This  is  true  of  most  knowledge  in  all  departments 
of  research.  We  may  reco^^nise  that  there  is  some  practical 
use  in  the  rules  of  logic,  ancient  and  modern,  but  we  know 
that  they  are  but  the  uncouth  and  inadequate  symbols  of 
the  ways  in  which  an  indefinable  mental  tact,  whose 
delicacy  varies  with  the  mind  that  uses  it,  perceives  diver- 
gences and  affinities,  and  weaves  its  web  of  knowledge  in 
ways  that  are  past  finding  out.  We  know  that  logical 
argument  is  a  good  shield  but  a  bad  sword,  and  that  while 
syllogisms  may  silence,  they  seldom  convince ;  that  per- 
suasion arises  from  a  subtle  sympathy  of  soul  with  soul, 
which  is  as  indefinable  as  the  personalities  which  exhale  it. 
There  is  always  at  the  basis  of  knowledge  of  men  and  things 
this  delicate  contact  of  personality  with  personality,  whether 
we  think  of  the  gathering,  or  assorting,  or  exchanging  the 
wisdom  we  possess.  If  this  be  true  of  our  knowledge  of 
common  things,  it  is  overwhelmingly  so  of  all  knowledge 
of  God  and  of  things  divine.  We  must  be  in  touch  with 
God  to  know  Him  in  the  true  sense  of  knowledge.  At  the 
basis  of  every  real  advance  in  religion  there  must  be  an 
intimate  vision  of  God  impressed  upon  us  as  a  religious 
experience  which  we  know  to  be  true  because  we  have  felt 


THE    PRIESTHOOD    OF    BELIEVERS  435 

it ;  and  what  one  bas,  another  receives  by  a  species  of  spiritual 
contagion.  The  revival  under  Francis  of  Assisi  spread  as  it 
did  because  the  fire  flaming  in  the  heart  of  the  preacher 
was  also  kindled  in  the  hearts  of  his  hearers.  Luther 
headed  a  Eeformation  because  men  felt  and  knew  that  he 
had,  as  he  said,  found  a  gracious  God  by  trusting  in  the 
grace  of  God  revealed  to  him  in  Christ  Jesus.  It  was  not 
the  Augsburg  Confession  that  made  the  Eeformation  ;  it 
was  tlie  expansion  of  a  religious  experience  which  finds 
very  inadequate  description  in  that  or  in  any  other  state- 
ment of  doctrines. 


§  2.   The  universal  Priesthood  of  Believers, 

Luther's  religious  experience,  that  he,  a  sinner,  received 
forgiveness  by  simply  throwing  himself  on  God  revealed  in 
Christ  Jesus  the  Saviour,  came  to  him  as  an  astoundin*^ 
revelation  which  was  almost  too  great  to  be  put  into  words. 
He  tried  to  express  it  in  varying  ways,  all  of  which  he  felt 
too  utterly  inadequate  to  describe  it.  We  can  see  how  he 
laboured  at  it  from  1512  to  1517.  It  lay  hidden  in  his 
discourse  to  the  assembly  of  clergy  in  the  episcopal  palace 
at  Ziesar  (June  5th,  1512),  when  he  declared  that  all 
reform  must  begin  in  the  hearts  of  individual  men.  We 
can  see  it  growing  more  and  more  articulate  in  his  annota- 
tions, notes,  and  heads  of  lectures  on  the  Psalms,  delivered 
in  the  years  1513-1516,  struggling  to  free  itself  from 
the  phrases  of  the  Scholastic  Theology  which  could  not 
really  express  it.  His  private  letters,  in  which  he  was 
less  hampered  by  the  phraseology  which  he  still  believed 
appropriate  to  theology,  are  full  of  happier  expressions.^ 
Justificatio  is  vivificatio,  and  means  to  redeem  from  sins 
without  any  merit  in  the  person  redeemed ;  it  takes  place 
when  sin  is  not  imputed,  but  the  penitents  are  reputed 

*  These  annotations,  glosses,  and  notes  of  lectures  have  heen  collected  and 
published  in  volumes  iii.  and  iv.  of  the  Weimar  edition  of  Luther's  Works. 
The  most  important  phrases  have  been  carefully  extracted  by  Loofs  in  hi? 
LeUfaden,  pp.  345-352. 


436  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

righteous.  Grace  is  the  pity  (misericordia)  of  God;  it 
manifests  itself  in  the  remission  of  sins ;  it  is  the  truth  of 
God  seen  in  the  fulfilment  of  His  promises  in  the  historical 
work  of  Christ ;  Jesus  Christ  Himself  is  grace,  is  the  way, 
is  life  and  salvation.  Faith  is  trust  in  the  truth  of  God 
as  manifested  in  the  life  and  work  of  Jesus  Christ ;  it  is 
to  believe  in  God;  it  is  a  knowledge  of  the  Cross  of  Christ; 
it  is  to  understand  that  the  Son  of  God  became  incarnate, 
,was  crucified,  and  raised  again  for  our  salvation.  The 
Ithree  central  thoughts — -justification,  grace, faith — expressed 
in  these  inadequate  phrases,  are  always  looked  upon  and 
used  to  regulate  that  estimate  of  ourselves  which  forms 
the  basis  of  piety.  It  is  needless  to  trace  the  growing 
adequacy  of  the  description.  Luther  at  last  found  words 
to  say  that  the  central  thought  in  Christianity  is  that  the 
believer  in  possession  of  faith,  which  is  itself  the  gift  of 
God,  is  able  to  throw  himself  on  God  in  Christ  Who  is  his 
salvation  and  Who  has  mirrored  Himself  for  us  in  Christ 
Jesus.  He  had  trod  the  weary  round  that  Augustine  had 
gone  before  him ;  he  had  tried  to  help  himself  in  every 
possible  way ;  he  had  found  that  with  all  his  striving  he 
could  do  nothing.  Then,  strange  and  mysterious  as  it  was, 
the  discovery  had  not  brought  despair,  but  rejoicing  and 
comfort ;  for  since  there  was  no  help  whatever  in  man,  his 
soul  had  been  forced  to  find  all — not  part,  but  all — help 
in  God.  When  he  was  able  to  express  his  experience  he 
could  say  that  the  faith  which  throws  itself  on  God,  which 
is  God's  own  gift,  is  the  certainty  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins. 
It  was  no  adherence  to  doctrines  more  or  less  clearly  com- 
prehended ;  it  was  no  act  of  initiation  to  be  followed  by 
a  nearer  approach  to  God  and  a  larger  measure  of  His 
grace ;  it  was  the  power  which  gives  life,  certainty,  peace, 
continuous  self-surrender  to  God  as  the  Father,  and  which 
transforms  and  renews  the  whole  man.  It  was  the  life 
of  the  soul;  it  was  Christianity  within  the  believer — 
as  Jesus  Christ  and  His  work  is  Christianity  outside  the 
believer. 

It  is  manifest  that  as  soon  as  this  experience  attained 


TH|]    PRIESTHOOD   OF    BELIEVERS  437 

articulate  statement,  it  was  bound  to  discredit  much  tliat 
was  in  mediaiival  theology  and  religious  usage.  Yet  the 
striking  thing  about  Luther  was  that  he  never  sought  to 
employ  it  in  this  way  until  one  great  abuse  forced  itself 
upon  him  and  compelled  him  to  test  it  by  this  touchstone 
of  what  true  Christianity  was.  This  reserve  not  only 
shows  that  there  was  nothing  revolutionary  in  the  character 
of  Luther,  nothing  romantic  or  quixotic,  it  also  manifests 
the  quiet  greatness  of  the  man.  Nor  was  there  anything 
in  the  fundamental  religious  experience  of  Luther  which 
necessarily  conflicted  with  the  contents  of  the  old  ecclesias- 
tical doctrines,  or  even  with  the  common  usages  of  the 
religious  life.  There  was  a  change  in  the  attitude  towards 
both,  and  an  entirely  new  estimate  of  their  religious  value, 
but  nothing  which  called  for  their  immediate  criticism,  still 
less  for  their  destruction.  Faith,  which  was  the  Christian 
life,  could  no  lorger  be  based  upon  them ;  they  were  not 
the  essential  things  that  they  had  been  supposed  to  be ; 
but  they  might  have  their  uses  if  kept  in  their  proper 
places — aids  to  all  holy  living,  but  not  that  from  whicli 
the  life  sprang.  The  thought  that  the  entire  sum  of 
religion  consists  in  "  unwavering  trust  of  the  heart  in  Him 
Who  has  given  Himself  to  us  in  Christ  as  our  Father, 
personal  assurance  of  faith,  because  Christ  with  His  work 
undertakes  our  cause,"  simplified  religion  marvellously,  and 
made  many  things  which  had  been  regarded  as  essential 
mere  outside  auxiliaries.  But  it  did  not  necessarily  sweep 
them  away.  Though  the  acceptance  of  certain  forms  of 
doctrine,  auricular  confession,  the  monastic  life,  communion 
by  the  laity  in  one  "  kind "  only  in  the  Sacrament  of  the 
Supper,  a  celibate  priesthood,  fasting,  going  on  pilgrimages, 
not  to  eat  meat  on  Friday,  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
essentials  of  the  Christian  life  ;  still  it  was  not  necessary 
to  insist  on  eating  meat  on  Friday,  on  abstaining  from 
fasting,  and  so  on.  The  great  matter  was  the  spirit  in 
which  such  things  were  performed  or  left  undone.  What 
the  fundamental  religious  experience  had  done  was  to  show 
the  liberty  of  the  Christian  man  to  trust  courageously  in 


438  RELIGIOUS    PRINCIPLES 

God  and  count  all  things  of  little  moment  compared  with 
this  which  was  the  one  thing  needful. 

"  Out  of  a  complex  system  of  expiations,  good  deeds,  and 
jomfortings,  of  strict  statutes  and  uncertain  apportionments 
of  grace,  out  of  magic  and  blind  obedience,  Luther  led 
religion  forth  and  gave  it  a  strenuously  concentrated  form. 
The  Christian  religion  is  the  living  assurance  of  the  living 
God  Who  has  revealed  Himself  and  opened  His  heart  in 
Christ — nothing  more."  ^ 

It  was  a  vital  part  of  this  fundamental  experience  that 
the  living  God  Who  had  manifested  Himself  in  Christ  was 
accessible  to  every  Christian.     To  quote  Harnack  again: 

"  Rising  above  all  anxieties  and  terrors,  above  all  ascetic 
devices,  above  all  directions  of  theology,  above  all  inter- 
ventions of  hierarchy  and  Sacraments,  Luther  ventured  to 
lay  hold  of  God  Himself  in  Christ,  and  in  this  act  of  faith, 
which  he  recognised  as  God's  work,  his  whole  being  obtained 
stability  and  firmness,  nay,  even  a  personal  joy  and  certainty, 
which  no  mediaeval  Christian  had  ever  possessed."* 

God  Himself  gave  the  believer  the  power  to  throw 
himself  directly  on  God.  But  this  contradicted  one  of  the 
most  widely  diffused  and  most  strongly  held  religious 
beliefs  of  the  mediaeval  Church,  and  was  bound  to  come 
in  collision  with  it  whenever  the  two  were  confronted  with 
each  other.  It  was  the  universal  conception  of  mediaeval 
piety  that  the  mediation  of  a  priest  was  essential  to  salva- 
tion. Mediaeval  Christians  believed  with  more  or  less 
distinctness  that  the  supernatural  life  of  the  soul  was 
ereatedy  nourished,  and  perfected  through  the  sacraments, 
and  that  the  priests  administering  them  possessed,  in  virtue 
of  their  ordination,  miraculous  powers  whereby  they  daily 
offered  the  true  sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ  upon  the  altar, 
forgave  the  sins  of  men,  and  taught  the  truths  of  salvation 
with  divine  authority.  It  was  this  universally  accepted 
power  of  a  mediatorial  priesthood  which  had  enslaved 
Europe,  and  which  had  rendered  the  liberty  of  a  Christian 

>  A.  Harnack,  History  of  Dogma,  vii.  183.  •  Ihid.  vii.  184. 


THE   PRIESTHOOD   OF    BELIEVERS  439 

man  an  impossible  thing.  Everywhere  the  priesthood 
barred,  or  was  supposed  to  be  able  to  bar,  the  way  to  God. 
The  Church,  which  ought  to  have  shown  how  God  Who  had 
revealed  Himself  in  Christ  was  accessible  to  every  believer, 
had  surrounded  the  inner  shrine  of  the  sanctuary  of  His 
Presence  with  a  triple  wall  of  defence  which  prevented 
entrance.  When  man  or  woman  felt  sorrow  for  sin,  they 
were  instructed  to  go,  not  to  God,  but  to  a  man,  often  of 
immoral  life,  and  confess  their  sins  to  him  because  he  was 
a  priest.  When  they  wished  to  hear  the  comforting  words 
of  pardon  spoken,  it  was  not  from  God,  but  from  a  priest 
that  the  assurance  was  supposed  to  come.  God's  grace,  to 
help  to  holy  living  and  to  bring  comfort  in  dying,  was 
given,  it  was  said,  only  through  a  series  of  sacraments 
which  fenced  man's  life  round,  and  priests  could  give  or 
withhold  these  sacraments.  Man  was  born  again  in 
baptism ;  he  came  of  age  spiritually  in  confirmation ;  hia 
marriage  was  cleansed  from  the  sin  of  lust  in  the  sacrament 
of  matrimony;  penance  brought  back  his  spiritual  life 
slain  by  deadly  sin;  the  Eucharist  gave  him  his  voyage 
victual  as  he  journeyed  through  life;  and  deathbed  grace 
was  imparted  in  extreme  unction.  These  ceremonies 
were  not  the  signs  and  promises  of  the  free  grace  of  God, 
under  whose  wide  canopy,  as  under  that  of  heaven,  man 
lived  his  spiritual  life.  They  were  jealously  guarded  doors 
from  out  of  which  grudgingly,  and  commonly  not  without 
fees,  the  priests  dispensed  the  free  grace  of  God. 

During  the  later  Middle  Ages  a  gross  abuse  made 
the  evils  of  this  conception  of  a  mediating  priesthood 
emphatic.  The  practical  evil  lying  in  the  whole  thought 
was  not  so  very  apparent  when  the  matter  was  regarded 
from  the  side  of  giving  out  the  grace  of  God ;  but  when  it 
came  to  withholding  it,  then  it  was  seen  what  the  whole 
conception  meant.  The  Bishops  of  Eome  gave  the  peoples 
of  Europe  many  an  object  lesson  on  this.  If  a  town,  or  a 
district,  or  a  whole  country  had  offended  the  Pope  and  the 
Curia,  it  was  placed  under  an  interdict,  and  the  priests  were 
commanded  to  refuse  the  sacraments  to  the  people.     They 


440  RELIGIOUS    PRINCIPLES 

stood  between  the  newborn  babe  and  the  initial  graa?  sup- 
posed to  be  bestowed  in  baptism,  and  to  be  absolutely 
withheld  if  baptism  was  not  administered;  between  the 
dying  man  and  the  deathbed  grace  which  was  received  in 
extreme  unction;  between  young  men  and  women  and 
legal  marriage  blessed  by  God ;  between  the  people  and 
daily  worship  and  the  bestowal  of  grace  in  the  Eucharist. 
The  God  of  grace  could  not  be  approached,  the  blessings 
of  pardon  and  strength  for  holy  living  could  not  be  procured, 
because  the  magistrates  of  a  town  or  the  king  and  councillors 
of  a  nation  had  offended  the  Bishop  of  Eome  on  an  affair  of 
worldly  policy.  The  Church,  i.e.  the  clergy,  who  were  by 
the  theory  enabled  to  refuse  to  communicate  the  grace  of 
God,  barred  all  access  to  the  God  who  had  revealed  Himself 
in  Christ  Jesus.  The  Pope  by  a  stroke  of  the  pen  could 
prevent  a  whole  nation,  so  it  was  believed,  from  approach- 
ing God,  because  he  could  prohibit  priests  from  performing 
the  usual  sacramental  acts  which  alone  brought  Him  near. 
An  interdict  meant  spiritual  death  to  the  district  on  which 
it  fell,  and  on  the  mediaeval  theory  it  was  more  deadly  to 
the  spiritual  life  than  the  worst  of  plagues,  the  Black 
Death  itself,  was  to  the  body.  An  interdict  made  the 
plainest  intellect  see,  understand,  and  shudder  at  the  awful 
and  mysterious  powers  which  a  mediatorial  priesthood  was 
said  to  possess. 

The  fundamental  religious  experience  of  Luther  had 
made  him  know  that  the  Father,  who  has  revealed  Himself 
in  His  Son,  is  accessible  to  every  humble  penitent  and 
faithful  seeker  after  God.  He  proclaimed  aloud  the 
spiritual  priesthood  of  all  believers.  He  stated  it  with 
his  usual  graphic  emphasis  in  that  tract  of  his,  which  he 
always  said  contained  the  marrow  of  his  message. — 
Concerning  Christian  Liberty.  He  begins  by  an  antithesis : 
"  A  Christian  man  is  the  most  free  lord  of  all,  and  subject 
to  none:  a  Christian  man  is  the  most  dutiful  servant 
of  all,  and  subject  to  everyone  " ;  or,  as  St.  Paul  puts  it, 
"  Though  I  be  free  from  all  men,  yet  have  I  made  myself 
servant  of  all.'*     He   expounds   this  by  showing  that  no 


THE   PRIESTHOOD   OF   BELIEVERS  441 

outward  things  have  any  influence  in  producing  Chris- 
tian righteousness  or  liberty ;  neither  eating,  drinking,  nor 
anything  of  the  kind,  neither  hunger  nor  thirst  have  to  do 
with  the  hberty  or  tlie  slavery  of  the  soul.  It  does  not  profit 
the  soul  to  wear  sacred  vestments  or  to  dwell  in  sacred 
places ;  nor  does  it  harm  the  soul  to  be  clothed  in  worldly 
raiment,  and  to  eat  and  drink  in  the  ordinary  fashion. 
The  soul  can  do  without  everything  except  the  word  of 
God,  and  this  word  of  God  is  the  gospel  of  God  concern- 
ing His  Son,  incarnate,  suffering,  risen,  and  glorified 
through  the  Spirit  the  Sanctifier.  "  To  preach  Christ  is  to 
feed  the  soul,  to  justify  it,  to  set  it  free,  to  save  it,  if  it 
believes  the  preaching;  for  faith  alone  and  the  efficacious 
use  of  the  word  of  God  bring  salvation."  It  is  faith  that 
incorporates  Christ  with  the  believer,  and  in  this  way  "  the 
soul  through  faith  alone,  without  works,  is,  from  the  word 
of  God,  justified,  sanctified,  endued  with  truth,  peace, 
liberty,  and  filled  full  with  every  good  thing,  and  is  truly 
made  the  child  of  God."  For  faith  brings  the  soul  and  the 
word  together,  and  the  soul  is  acted  upon  by  the  word, 
as  iron  exposed  to  fire  glows  like  fire  because  of  its  union 
with  the  fire.  Faith  honours  and  reveres  Him  in  Whom 
it  trusts,  and  cleaves  to  His  promises,  never  doubting  but 
that  He  overrules  all  for  the  best.  Faith  unites  the  soul 
to  Christ,  so  that  "  Christ  and  the  soul  become  one  flesh." 
"Thus  the  believing  soul,  by  the  pledge  of  its  faith  in 
Christ,  becomes  free  from  all  sin,  fearless  of  death,  safe 
from  hell,  and  endowed  with  the  eternal  righteousness,  life, 
and  salvation  of  its  husband  Christ."  This  gives  the  liberty 
of  the  Christian  man ;  no  dangers  can  really  harm  him,  no 
sorrows  utterly  overwhelm  him :  for  he  is  always  accom- 
panied by  the  Christ  to  whom  he  is  united  by  his  faith. 

"  Here  you  will  ask,"  says  Luther,  "  *  If  all  who  are  in 
the  Church  are  priests,  by  what  character  are  those  whom 
we  now  call  priests  to  be  distinguished  from  the  laity  ?  * 
I  reply.  By  the  use  of  these  words  *  priest,'  'clergy,' 
*  spiritual  person,'  *  ecclesiastic,'  an  injustice  has  been  done, 
since  they  have  been  transferred  from  the  remaining  body 


442  RELIGIOUS    PRINCIPLES 

of  Christians  to  those  few  who  are  now,  by  a  hurtful 
custom,  called  ecclesiastics.  For  Holy  Scripture  makes  no 
distinction  between  them,  except  that  those  who  are  now 
boastfully  called  Popes,  bishops,  and  lords,  it  calls  ministers, 
servants,  and  stewards,  who  are  to  serve  the  rest  in  the 
ministry  of  the  word,  for  teaching  the  faith  of  Christ  and 
the  liberty  of  believers.  For  though  it  is  true  that  we  are 
all  equally  priests,  yet  we  cannot,  nor  ought  we  if  we 
could,  all  to  minister  and  teach  publicly." 

The  first  part  of  the  treatise  shows  that  everything 
which  a  Christian  man  has  goes  back  in  the  end  to  his 
faith ;  if  he  has  this  he  has  all ;  if  he  has  it  not,  nothing 
else  suffices  him.  In  the  same  way  the  second  part  shows 
that  everything  that  a  Christian  man  does  must  come  from 
his  faith.  It  may  be  necessary  to  fast  and  keep  the  body 
under ;  it  will  be  necessary  to  make  use  of  all  the 
ceremonies  of  divine  service  which  have  been  found 
effectual  for  the  spiritual  education  of  man.  The  thing  to 
remember  is  that  these  are  not  good  works  in  themselves 
in  the  sense  of  making  a  man  good ;  they  are  all  rather 
the  signs  of  his  faith,  and  are  to  be  done  with  joy,  because 
they  are  done  to  the  God  to  whom  faith  unites  us.  So 
ecclesiastical  ceremonies,  or  what  may  be  called  the 
machinery  of  Church  life,  are  valuable,  and  indeed  in- 
dispensable to  the  life  of  the  soul,  provided  only  they  are 
regarded  in  the  proper  way  and  kept  in  their  proper  place ; 
but  they  may  become  harmful  and  most  destructive  of  the 
true  religious  life  if  they  are  considered  in  any  other  light 
than  that  of  means  to  an  end.  "  We  do  not  condemn 
works,"  says  Luther,  "nay  we  attach  the  highest  value  to 
them.  We  only  condemn  that  opinion  of  works  which 
regards  them  as  constituting  true  righteousness."  They 
are,  he  explains,  like  the  scaffolding  of  a  building,  eminently 
useful  so  long  as  they  assist  the  builder;  harmful  if  they 
obstruct ;  and  at  the  best  of  temporary  value.  They  are 
destructive  to  the  spiritual  life  when  they  come  between 
the  soul  and  God.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  if  through 
human    corruption    and    neglect    of    the    plain     precepts 


THE    PRIESTHOOD    OF    BELIEVERS  443 

of  the  word  of  God  these  ecclesiastical  usages  hinder 
instead  of  aid  the  true  growth  of  the  soul,  they  ought  to  be 
changed  or  done  away  with  ;  and  the  fact  that  the  soul  of 
man,  in  the  last  resort,  needs  absolutely  nothing  but  the 
word  of  God  dwelling  within  it,  gives  men  courage  and 
tranquillity  in  demanding  their  reformation. 

In  the  same  way  fellow-men  are  not  to  be  allowed  to 
come  between  God  and  the  human  soul;  and  there  is  no 
need  that  they  should.  So  far  as  spiritual  position  and 
privileges  go,  the  laity  are  on  the  very  same  level  as 
the  clergy,  for  laity  and  clergy  alike  have  immediate 
access  to  God  through  faith,  and  both  are  obliged  to  do 
what  lies  in  them  to  further  the  advance  of  the  kingdom 
of  God  among  their  fellow-men.  All  believing  laymen 
"  are  worthy  to  appear  before  God,  to  pray  for  others,  to 
teach  each  other  mutually  the  things  that  are  of  God  .  .  . 
and  as  our  heavenly  Father  has  freely  helped  us  in  Christ, 
so  we  ought  freely  to  help  our  neighbours  by  our  body  and 
our  works,  and  each  should  become  to  the  other  a  sort  of 
Christ,  so  that  we  may  be  mutually  Christs,  and  that  the 
same  Christ  may  be  in  all  of  us ;  that  we  may  be  truly 
Christians."  Luther  asserted  that  men  and  women  living 
their  lives  in  the  family,  in  the  workshop,  in  the  civic 
world,  held  their  position  there,  not  by  a  kind  of  indirect 
permission  wrung  from  God  out  of  His  compassion  for 
human  frailties,  but  by  as  direct  a  vocation  as  called  a 
man  to  what  by  mistake  had  been  deemed  the  only 
"  religious  life."  The  difference  between  clergy  and  laity 
did  not  consist  in  the  supposed  fact  that  the  former  were  a 
spiritual  order  of  a  superior  rank  in  the  religious  life, 
while  the  latter  belonged  to  a  lower  condition.  The  clergy 
differed  from  the  laity  simply  in  this,  that  they  had  been 
selected  to  perform  certain  definite  duties ;  but  the  func- 
tion did  not  make  him  who  performed  it  a  holier  man 
intrinsically.  If  the  clergy  misused  their  position  and  did 
not  do  the  work  they  were  set  apart  to  perform,  there  was 
no  reason  why  they  should  not  be  compelled  by  the  laity 
to  amend   their   ways.     Even  in   the  celebration  of   the 


444  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

holiest  rites  there  was  no  distinction  between  clergy  and 
laity  save  that  to  prevent  disorder  the  former  presided 
over  the  rites  in  which  all  engaged.     At  the  Eucharist 

"our  priest  or  minister  stands  before  the  altar,  having 
been  publicly  called  to  his  priestly  function;  he  repeats 
publicly  and  distinctly  Christ's  words  of  the  institution ;  he 
takes  the  Bread  and  the  Wine,  and  distributes  it  according 
to  Christ's  words ;  and  we  all  kneel  beside  him  and  around 
him,  men  and  women,  young  and  old,  master  and  servant, 
mistress  and  maid,  all  holy  priests  together,  sanctified  by 
the  blood  of  Christ.  We  are  there  in  our  priestly  dignity. 
.  .  .  We  do  not  let  the  priest  proclaim  for  himself  the 
ordinance  of  Christ ;  but  he  is  the  mouthpiece  of  us  all,  and 
we  all  say  it  with  him  in  our  hearts  with  true  faith  in  the 
Lamb  of  God  Who  feeds  us  with  His  Body  and  Blood." 

ilt  was  this  principle  of  the  Priesthood  of  all  Believers 
which  delivered  men  from  the  vague  fear  of  the  clergy, 
and  which  was  a  spur  to  incite  them  to  undertake  the 
reformation  of  the  Church  which  was  so  much  needed. 
It  is  the  one  great  religious  principle  which  lies  at  the 
basis  of  the  whole  Eeformation  movement.  It  was  the  rock 
on  which  all  attempts  at  reunion  with  an  unreformed 
Christendom  were  wrecked.  It  is  the  one  outstanding 
difference  between  the  followers  of  the  reformed  and  the 
mediaeval  religion. 

Almost  all  the  distinctive  principles  of  the  Eeforma- 
tion group  themselves  round  this  one  thought  of  the 
Priesthood  of  all  Believers.  It  is  sufficient  for  our  pur 
pose  to  look  at  Justification  by  Faith,  the  conceptions  ot 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  of  the  Person  of  Christ,  and  of  the 
Chui^h. 

§  3.  Justification  hy  Faith 

When  Luther,  oppressed  with  a  sense  of  sin,  entered 
the  convent,  he  was  burdened  by  the  ideas  of  traditional 
religion,  that  the  penitent  must  prepare  himself  in  some 
way  so  as  to  render  himself  fit  to  experience  that  sense 
of  the  grace  of  God  which  gives  the  certainty  of  pardon. 
It   was  not  until   he  had  thoroughly  freed   himself  from 


JUSTIFICATION    BY    FAITH  445 

that  weight  that  he  experienced  the  sense  of  pardon  he 
sought.  This  practical  experience  of  his  must  always  be 
kept  in  view  w^hen  we  try  to  conceive  what  he  meant  by 
Justification  by  Faith. 

As  has  been  already  said,  Luther  recognised  that  there 
were  two  kinds  of  faith, — one  which  man  himself  begot 
and  through  which  he  was  able  to  give  assent  to  doctrines 
of  some  sort ;  and  another  which  Luther  vehemently 
asserted  was  the  pure  gift  of  God.  The  first  he  thought 
comparatively  unimportant ;  the  latter  was  all  in  all  to 
him.  Faith  is  always  used  in  the  latter  sense  when  the 
Eeformers  speak  about  Justification  ly  Faith  ;  and  the  sharp 
distinction  which  Luther  draws  between  the  two  is  a  very 
important  element  in  determining  what  he  meant  when 
he  said  that  we  are  justified  by  faith  alone. 

This  faith  of  the  highest  kind,  the  true  faith,  has  its 
beginning  by  God  working  on  us  and  in  us.  It  is  con- 
tinually fed  and  kept  strong  by  the  word  of  God.  The 
promise  of  God  on  God's  side  and  faith  on  man's  side  are 
two  correlative  things ;  "  for  where  there  is  no  promise, 
there  is  no  faith."  Luther  brings  out  what  this  true 
faith  is  by  contrasting  it  with  the  other  kind  of  faith  in 
two  very  instructive  and  trenchant  passages  : 

"When  faith  is  of  the  kind  that  God  awakens  and 
creates  in  the  heart,  then  a  man  trusts  in  Christ.  He  is 
then  so  securely  founded  on  Christ  that  he  can  hurl  de- 
fiance at  sin,  death,  hell,  the  devil,  and  all  God's  enemies. 
He  fears  no  ill,  however  hard  and  cruel  it  may  prove  to  be. 
Such  is  the  nature  of  true  faith,  which  is  utterly  different 
from  the  faith  of  the  sophists  (the  Schoolmen),  Jews,  and 
Turks.  Their  faith,  produced  by  their  thoughts,  simply 
lights  upon  a  thing,  accepts  it,  believes  that  it  is  this  or 
that.  God  has  no  dealings  with  such  delusion;  it  is  the 
work  of  man,  and  comes  from  nature,  from  the  free  will  of 
man ;  and  men  possessing  it  can  say,  repeating  what  othei-s 
have  said :  1  believe  that  there  is  a  God.  I  believe  tliat 
Christ  was  born,  died,  rose  again  for  me.  But  what  the 
real  faith  is,  and  how  powerful  a  thing  it  is,  of  this  they 
know  nothing."  ^ 

*  Luther's  Works  (2nd  Erlaugen  edition),  xr.  540. 


446  RELIGIOUS    PRINCIPLES 

He  says  again : 

"  Wherefore,  beware  of  that  faith  which  is  manufactured 
or  imagined ;  for  the  true  faith  is  not  the  work  of  man,  and 
therefore  the  faith  which  is  manufactured  or  imagined  will 
not  avail  in  death,  but  will  be  overcome  and  utterly  over- 
thrown by  sin,  by  the  devil,  and  by  the  pains  of  hell.  The 
true  faith  is  the  heart's  utter  trust  in  Christ,  and  God  alone 
awakens  this  in  us.  He  who  has  it  is  blessed,  he  who  has 
it  not  is  cursed."  ^ 

This  faith  has  an  outside  fact  to  rest  upon — the  his- 
torical Christ.  It  is  neither  helped  nor  hindered  by  a 
doctrine  of  the  Person  of  Christ,  nor  by  a  minute  and 
elaborate  knowledge  of  the  details  of  our  Lord's  earthly 
ministry.  The  man  who  has  the  faith  may  know  a  great 
deal  about  the  doctrine  of  the  Person  of  Christ :  that  will  do 
his  faith  no  harm  but  good,  provided  onl}"  be  does  not  make 
the  mistake  of  thinking  that  doctrines  about  Christ,  ways  by 
which  the  human 'understanding  tries  to  conceive  the  fact, 
are  either  the  fact  itself  or  something  better  than  the  fact. 
He  may  know  a  great  deal  about  the  history  of  Jesus,  and 
it  is  well  to  know  as  much  as  possible ;  but  the  amount 
of  knowledge  scarcely  affects  the  faith.  Wayfaring  men, 
though  fools,  need  not  err  in  the  p?ithway  of  faith. 

The  faith  which  is  the  gift  of  God  makes  us  see  the 
practical  meaning  in  the  fact  of  the  historic  Christ — this, 
namely,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  there  before  us  the  mani- 
festation of  the  Fatherly  love  of  God,  revealing  to  us  our 
own  forgiveness,  and  with  it  the  possibilities  of  the  King- 
dom of  God  and  of  our  place  therein.  The  fact  of  the 
historic  Christ  is  there,  seen  by  men  in  a  natural  way ; 
but  it  is  the  power  of  God  lying  in  the  faith  which  He 
has  given  us  that  makes  us  see  with  full  certainty  the 
meaning  of  the  fact  of  the  historic  Christ  for  us  and  for 
our  salvation.  Moreover,  this  vision  of  God  in  the  his- 
toric Christ,  which  is  the  deepest  of  all  personal  things, 
always  involves  something  social.  It  brings  us  within 
the  family  of  the  faithful,  within  the  Christian  fellowship 

*  Luther's  Works  (2nd  Erlangen  edition),  xv.  542. 


JUSTIFICATION   BY   FAITH  447 

with  its  confirming  evidences  of  faith  and  love.  The 
power  of  faith  comes  to  us  singly,  but  seldom  solitarily ; 
the  trust  we  have  in  God  in  Christ  is  faintly  mirrored  in 
the  faith  we  learn  to  have  in  the  members  of  the  house- 
hold of  faith,  and  in  their  manifestations  of  faith  and  the 
love  which  faith  begets. 

What  has  been  called  the  doctrine  of  Justification  by 
Faith  is  therefore  rather  the  description  of  a  religious 
experience  within  the  believer;  and  the  meaning  of  the 
experience  is  simply  this.  The  believer,  who  because  he 
has  faith — the  faith  which  is  the  gift  of  God,  which  is 
our  life  and  which  regenerates  —  is  regenerate  and  a 
member  of  the  Christian  fellowship,  and  is  able  to  do  good 
works  and  actually  does  them,  does  not  find  his  standing 
as  a  person  justified  in  the  sight  of  God,  his  righteous- 
ness, his  assurance  of  pardon  and  salvation,  in  those  good 
works  which  he  really  can  do,  but  only  in  the  mediatorial 
and  perfectly  righteous  work  of  Christ  which  he  has  learned 
to  appropriate  in  faith.  His  good  works,  however  really 
good,  are  necessarily  imperfect,  and  in  this  experience 
which  we  call  Justification  by  Faith  the  believer  compares 
his  own  imperfect  good  works  with  the  perfect  work  of 
Christ,  and  recognises  that  his  pardon  and  salvation  de- 
pends on  that  alone.  This  comparison  quiets  souls  anxious 
about  their  salvation,  and  soothes  pious  consciences ;  and 
the  sense  of  forgiveness  which  comes  in  this  way  is  always 
experienced  as  a  revelation  of  wonderful  love.  This  justi- 
fication is  called  an  act,  and  is  contrasted  with  a  work ; 
but  the  contrast,  though  true,  is  apt  to  mislead  through 
human  analogies  which  will  intrude.  It  is  an  act,  but  an 
act  of  God ;  and  divine  acts  are  never  done  and  done  with, 
they  are  always  continuous.  Luther  rings  the  changes  upon 
this.  He  warns  us  against  thinking  that  the  act  of  for- 
giveness is  all  done  in  a  single  moment.  The  priestly 
absolution  was  the  work  of  a  moment,  and  had  to  be 
done  over  and  over  again;  but  the  divine  pronouncement 
of  pardon  is  continuous  simply  because  it  is  God  who 
makes  it.     He  says : 


448  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

"  For  just  as  the  sun  shines  and  enlightens  none  the  less 
brightly  when  I  close  my  eyes,  so  this  throne  of  grace,  this 
forgiveness  of  sins,  is  always  there,  even  though  I  fall.  Just 
as  I  see  the  sun  again  when  I  open  my  eyes,  so  I  have  for- 
giveness and  the  sense  of  it  once  more  when  I  look  up  and 
return  to  Christ.  We  are  not  to  measure  forgiveness  as 
narrowly  as  fools  dream."  ^ 

[  In  the  Protestant  polemic  with  Koman  Catholic  doc- 
I  trine,  the  conception  of  Justification  by  Faith  is  contrasted 
I  with  that  of  Justification  by  Works ;  but  the  contrast  is 
somewhat  misleading.  For  the  word  justification  is  used 
in  different  meanings  in  the  two  phrases.  The  direct 
counterpart  in  Eoman  Catholic  usage  to  the  Eeformation 
thought  of  Justification  by  Faith  is  the  absolution  pro- 
nounced by  a  priest ;  and  here  as  always  the  Eeformer 
appeals  from  man  to  God.  The  two  conceptions  belong 
to  separate  spheres  of  thought. 

"  The  justification  of  which  the  mediaeval  Christian  had 
experience  was  the  descending  of  an  outward  stream  of 
forces  upon  him  from  the  supersensible  world,  through  the 
Incarnation,  in  the  channels  of  ecclesiastical  institutions, 
priestly  consecration,  sacraments,  confession,  and  good  works ; 
it  was  something  which  came  from  his  connection  with  a 
supersensible  organisation  which  surrounded  him.  The 
justification  by  faith  which  Luther  experienced  within  his 
soul  was  the  personal  experience  of  the  believer  standing 
in  the  continuous  line  of  the  Christian  fellowship,  who 
receives  the  assurance  of  the  grace  of  God  in  his  exercise 
of  a  personal  faith, — an  experience  which  comes  from  appro- 
priating the  work  of  Christ  which  he  is  able  to  do  by  that 
faith  which  is  the  gift  of  God."  * 

In  the  one  case,  the  Protestant,  justification  is  a  personal 
experience  which  is  complete  in  itself,  and  does  not  depend 
on  any  external  machinery ;  in  the  other,  the  Mediaeval, 
it  is  a  prolonged  action  of  usages,  sacraments,  external 
machinery  of  all  kinds,  which  by  their  combined  effect 
are  supposed   to  cliange  a  sinner  gradually  into  a  saint, 

*  Luther's  Works  (2nd  Erlaugen  edition),  xiv.  294. 

•  Dilthej,  Archivfiir  GcscMchte  der  Philosoj^hie,  V.  iii,  358, 


JXrSTIFICATION   BY   FAITH  449 

righteous  in  the  eyes  of  God.  With  the  former,  it  is  a 
continuous  experience ;  with  the  latter,  it  cannot  fail  to  be 
t  intermittent  as  the  external  means  are  actually  employed 
\or  for  a  time  laid  aside. 

The  meaning  of  the  Eeformation  doctrine  of  Justi- 
fication hy  Faith  may  be  further  brought  out  by  contrasting 
it  witli  the  theory  which  was  taught  by  that  later  school 
of  Scholastic  theology  which  was  all-powerful  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  more  evangelical 
theory  of  Thomas  Aquinas  was  largely  neglected,  and  the 
Nominalist  Schoolmen  based  their  expositions  of  the  doc- 
trine on  the  teaching  of  John  Duns  Scotus. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  mediaeval  theology  never 
repudiated  the  theology  of  Augustine,  and  admitted  in 
theory  at  least  that  man's  salvation,  and  justification  as 
part  of  it,  always  depended  in  the  last  resort  on  the  pre- 
venient  grace  of  God ;  in  their  reverence  for  the  teaching 
of  Aristotle,  they  believed  that  they  had  also  to  make 
room  for  the  action  of  the  free  will  of  man  which  they 
always  looked  on  as  the  pure  capacity  of  choice  between 
two  alternatives.  John  Duns  Scotus  got  rid  of  a  certain 
confusion  whicli  existed  between  the  gratia  operans  and 
gratia  co-operans  of  Augustine  by  speaking  of  the  grace 
of  God,  which  lay  at  the  basis  of  man's  justification,  as  a 
gratia  hahitualis,  or  an  operation  of  the  grace  of  God 
which  gave  to  the  will  of  man  an  habitual  tendency  to 
love  towards  God  and  man.  He  alleged  that  when  con- 
duct is  considered,  an  act  of  the  will  is  more  important 
than  any  habitual  tendency,  for  it  is  the  act  which  makes 
use  of  the  habit,  and  apart  from  the  act,  the  habit  is  a 
mere  inert  passivity.  Therefore,  he  held  that  the  chief 
thing  in  meritorious  conduct  is  not  so  much  the  habit 
which  has  been  created  by  God's  grace,  as  the  act  of  will 
which  makes  use  of  the  habit.  In  this  way  the  grace  of 
God  is  looked  upon  as  simply  the  general  basis  of  meri- 
torious conduct,  or  a  mere  cojiditio  sine  qua  non,  and  the 
important  thing  is  the  act  of  will  which  can  make  use  of 
the  otherwise  passive  liabit.  The  process  of  justification 
29* 


450  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

— and  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  Schoolmen  invari- 
ably looked  upon  justification  as  a  process  by  which  a 
sinner  was  gradually  made  into  a  righteous  man  and 
thoroughly  and  substantially  changed — may  therefore  be 
lescribed  as  an  infusion  of  divine  grace  which  creates  a 
habit  of  the  will  towards  love  to  God  and  to  man ;  this  is 
laid  hold  on  by  acts  of  the  will,  and  there  result  positive 
acts  of  love  towards  God  and  man  which  are  meritorious, 
and  which  gradually  change  a  sinner  into  a  righteous 
person.  This  is  the  theory ;  but  the  theory  is  changed 
into  practice  by  being  exhibited  in  the  framework  of  the 
Church  provided  to  aid  men  to  appropriate  the  grace  of 
God  which  is  the  basis  for  all.  The  obvious  and  easiest 
way  to  obtain  that  initial  grace  which  is  the  starting- 
point  is  by  the  sacraments,  which  are  said  to  infuse  grace — 
the  grace  which  is  needed  to  make  the  start  on  the  process 
of  justification.  Grace  is  infused  to  begin  with  in  Baptism  ; 
and  it  is  also  infused  from  time  to  time  in  the  Eucharist. 
If  a  man  has  been  baptized,  he  has  the  initial  grace  to 
start  with ;  and  he  can  get  additions  in  the  Eucharist. 
That,  according  to  the  theory,  is  all  that  is  needed  to 
start  the  will  on  its  path  of  meritorious  conduct.  But 
while  this  exhibits  the  ideal  process  of  justification  accord- 
ing to  mediaeval  theology,  it  must  be  remembered  that  there 
is  mortal  sin — sin  which  slays  the  new  life  begun  in  bap- 
tism— and  the  sacrament  which  renews  the  life  slain  will 
be  practically  more  important  than  the  sacrament  which 
first  creates  it.  Hence  practically  the  whole  process  of 
the  mediaeval  justification  is  best  seen  in  the  sacrament 
which  renews  the  life  slain  by  deadly  sins.  That  sacrament 
is  Penance ;  and  the  theory  and  practice  of  justification  is 
best  exhibited  in  the  Sacrament  of  Penance.  The  good 
disposition  of  the  will  towards  God  is  seen  in  confession ; 
this  movement  towards  God  is  complete  when  confession 
stimulated  by  the  priest  is  finished ;  the  performance  of 
the  meritorious  good  works  is  seen  in  the  penitent  per- 
forming the  "  satisfactions,"  or  tasks  imposed  by  the  priest, 
of  prayer,  of  almsgiving,  of  maceration;  while  the  abso- 


JUSTIFICATION    BY    FAITH  451 

lution  announces  that  the  process  is  comj.lete,  and  that 
the  sinner  has  become  a  righteous  man  and  is  in  "  a  state 
of  grace." 

In  opposition  to  all  this,  Luther  asserted  that  it  was 
possible  to  go  through  all  that  process  prescribed  by  the 
mediaeval  Church,  embodying  the  Scholastic  theory  of 
justification,  without  ever  having  the  real  sense  of  pardon, 
or  ever  being  comforted  by  the  sense  of  the  love  of  God. 
The  faith,  however,  which  is  the  gift  of  God  makes  the 
believer  see  in  the  Christ  Who  is  there  before  him  a 
revelation  of  God's  Fatherly  love  which  gives  him  the 
sense  of  pardon,  and  at  the  same  time  excites  in  him  the 
desire  to  do  all  manner  of  loving  service.  He  is  like 
the  forgiven  child  who  is  met  with  tenderness  when 
punishment  was  expected,  and  in  glad  wonder  resolves 
never  to  be  naughty  again — so  natural  and  simple  is  the 
Keformation  thought.  That  thought,  however,  can  be  put 
much  more  formally.     Chemnitz  expresses  it  thus : 

"  The  main  point  of  controversy  at  present  agitated  be- 
tween us  and  the  Papists  relates  to  the  good  works  or  new 
obedience  of  the  regenerate.  They  hold  that  the  regenerate 
are  justified  through  that  renewal  which  the  Holy  Spirit 
works  in  them,  and  by  means  of  the  good  works  ivhich  pro- 
ceed from  that  renewal.  They  hold  that  the  good  works  of 
the  regenerate  are  the  things  on  which  they  can  trust,  when 
the  hard  question  comes  to  be  answered,  whether  we  be 
children  of  God  and  have  been  accepted  to  everlasting  life. 
We  hold,  on  the  other  hand,  that  in  true  repentance  faith 
lays  hold  on  and  appropriates  to  itself  Christ's  satisfaction, 
and  in  so  doing  has  something  which  it  can  oppose  to  the 
law's  accusations  at  the  bar  of  God,  and  thus  bring  it  to 
pass  that  we  should  be  declared  righteous.  ...  It  is  indeed 
true  that  believers  have  actual  righteousness  through  their 
renewal  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  inasmuch  as  that  righteous- 
ness is  imperfect  and  still  impure  by  reason  of  the  flesh, 
all  men  cannot  stand  in  God's  judgment  with  it,  nor  on 
its  account  does  God  pronounce  us  righteous."^ 

Hence  we  may  say  that  the  difference  in  the  two  ways  of 
looking  at  the  matter  may  be  exhibited  in  the  answer  to  the 
Concilii  Tridentini  (Geneva,  1641),  pp.  134  f. 


452  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

question,  What  does  faith  lay  hold  on  in  true  repentance  ? 
The  Reformation  answer  is — (1)  not  on  a  mechanically 
complete  confession  made  to  a  priest,  nor  on  a  due  per- 
formance of  what  the  priest  enjoins  by  way  of  satisfac- 
tion ;  but  (2)  only  on  what  God  in  Christ  has  done  for  us, 
which  is  seen  in  the  life,  death,  and  rising  again  of  the 
Saviour. 

The  most  striking  differences  between  the  Eeformation 
and  the  mediaeval  conception  of  justification  are : 

(1)  The  Eeformation  thought  always  looks  at  the 
comparative  imperfection  of  the  works  of  believers,  while 
admitting  that  they  are  good  works ;  the  mediaeval  theo- 
logian, even  when  bidding  men  disregard  the  intrinsic  value 
of  their  good  works,  always  looks  at  the  relative  perfection 
of  these  works. 

(2)  The  Eeformer  had  a  much  more  concrete  idea 
of  God's  grace  —  it  was  something  special,  particular, 
unique — because  he  invariably  regarded  the  really  good 
works  which  men  can  do  from  their  relative  imperfection ; 
the  mediaeval  theologian  looked  at  the  relative  perfection 
of  good  works,  and  so  could  represent  them  as  something 
congruous  to  the  grace  of  God  which  was  not  sharply  dis- 
tinguished from  them. 

(3)  These  views  led  Luther  and  the  Eeformers  to  re- 
present faith  as  not  merely  the  receptive  organ  for  the 
reception  and  appropriation  of  justification  through  Christ, 
but,  and  in  addition,  as  the  active  instrument  in  all  Chris- 
tian life  and  work — faith  is  our  life ;  while  the  mediaeva] 
theologians  never  attained  this  view  of  faith. 

(4)  The  Eeformer  believes  that  the  act  of  faith  in  his 
justification  through  Christ  is  the  basis  of  the  believer's 
assurance  of  his  pardon  and  salvation  in  spite  of  the 
painful  and  abiding  sense  of  sin ;  while  the  mediaeval 
theologian  held  that  the  divine  sentence  of  acquittal 
which  restored  a  sinner  to  a  state  of  grace  resulted  from 
the  joint  action  of  the  priest  and  the  penitent  in  the 
Sacrament  of  Penance,  and  had  to  be  repeated  inter- 
mittently. 


HOLY   SCRIPTURE  453 

§  4.  Holy  Scripture, 

All  the  Reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century,  whether 
Luther,  Zwingli,  or  Calvin,  believed  that  in  the  Scriptures 
God  spoke  to  them  in  the  same  way  as  He  had  done  in 
earlier  days  to  His  propliets  and  Apostles.  They  believed 
that  if  the  common  people  had  the  Scriptures  in  a  language 
which  they  could  understand,  they  could  hear  God  speak- 
ing to  them  directly,  and  could  go  to  Him  for  comfort, 
warning,  or  instruction ;  and  their  description  of  what  they 
meant  by  the  Holy  Scriptures  is  simply  another  way  of 
saying  that  all  believers  can  have  access  to  the  very  pre- 
sence of  God.  The  Scriptures  were  therefore  for  them  a 
personal  rather  than  a  dogmatic  revelation.  They  record 
the  experience  of  a  fellowship  with  God  enjoyed  by  His 
saints  in  past  ages,  which  may  still  be  shared  in  by  the 
faithful.  In  Bible  history  as  the  Reformers  conceived  it. 
we  hear  two  voices — the  voice  of  God  speaking  love  to 
man,  and  the  voice  of  the  renewed  man  answering  in  faith 
to  God.  This  communion  is  no  dead  thing  belonging  to  a 
bygone  past ;  it  may  be  shared  here  and  now. 

But  the  Reformation  conception  of  Scripture  is  con- 
tinually stated  in  such  a  way  as  to  deprive  it  of  the 
eminently  religious  aspect  that  it  had  for  men  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  It  is  continually  said  that  the  Reformers 
placed  the  Bible,  an  infallible  Book,  over-against  an  in- 
fallible Church ;  and  transferred  the  same  hind  of  infalli- 
bility which  had  been  supposed  to  belong  to  the  Church  to 
this  book.  In  mediaeval  times,  men  accepted  the  decisions 
of  Popes  and  Councils  as  the  last  decisive  utterance  on  all 
matters  of  controversy  in  doctrine  and  morals ;  at  the  Re- 
formation, the  Reformers,  it  is  said,  placed  the  Bible  where 
these  Popes  and  Councils  had  been,  and  declared  that  the 
last  and  final  appeal  was  to  be  made  to  its  pages.  This  mode 
of  stating  the  question  has  found  its  most  concise  expression 
in  the  saying  of  Chillingworth,  that  "  the  Bible  and  the  Bible 
alone  is  the  religion  of  Protestants."  It  is  quite  true  that 
the  Reformers  did  set  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures  over- 


454  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

against  that  of  Popes  and  Councils,  and  that  Luther  de- 
clared that  "  the  common  man,"  "  miller's  maid,"  or  "  boy 
of  nine"  with  the  Bible  knew  more  about  divine  truth 
than  the  Pope  without  the  Bible;  but  this  is  not  the 
whole  truth,  and  is  therefore  misleading.  For  Eomanists 
and  Protestants  do  not  mean  the  same  thing  by  Scripture^ 
inor  do  they  mean  the  same  thing  by  Infallihility,  and  their 
different  use  of  the  words  is  a  most  important  part  of  the 
Eeformation  conception  of  Scripture. 

This  difference  in  the  meaning  of  Scripture  is  partly 
external  and  partly  internal ;  and  the  latter  is  the  more 
important  of  the  two. 

The  Scriptures  to  which  the  Komanist  appeals  include 
the  Apocryphal  Books  of  the  Old  Testament;  and  the 
Scriptures  which  are  authoritative  are  not  the  books  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testament  in  the  original  tongues,  but  a 
translation  into  Latin  known  as  the  Vulgate  of  Pope 
Sixtus  V.  They  are  therefore  a  book  to  a  large  extent 
different  from  the  one  to  which  Protestants  appeal. 

However  important  this  external  difference  may  be,  it 
is  nothing  in  comparison  with  the  internal  difference ;  and 
yet  the  latter  is  continually  forgotten  by  Protestants  as 
well  as  by  Eoman  Catholics  in  their  arguments. 

To  understand  it,  one  must  remember  that  every 
mediaeval  theologian  declared  that  the  whole  doctrinal 
system  of  his  Church  was  based  upon  the  Scriptures  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments.  The  Eeformers  did  nothing 
unusual,  nothing  which  was  in  opposition  to  the  common 
practice  of  the  mediaeval  Church  in  which  they  had  been 
born,  educated,  and  lived,  when  they  appealed  to  Scripture. 
Luther  made  his  appeal  with  the  same  serene  unconscious- 
ness that  anyone  could  gainsay  him,  as  he  did  when  he  set 
the  believer's  spiritual  experience  of  the  fact  that  he  rested 
on  Christ  alone  for  salvation  against  the  proposal  to  sell 
pardon  for  money.  His  opponents  never  attempted  to 
challenge  his  right  to  make  this  appeal  to  Scripture — at 
least  at  first.  They  made  the  same  appeal  themselves; 
they  believed  that  they  were  able  to  meet  Scripture  with 


HOLY   SCRIPTURE  455 

Scripture.  They  were  confident  that  the  authority  appealed 
to — Scripture — would  decide  against  Luther.  It  soon  be- 
came apparent,  however,  that  Luther  had  an  unexpectedly 
firmer  grasp  of  Scripture  than  they  had.  This  did  not 
mean  that  he  had  a  better  memory  for  texts.  It  was  seen 
that  Luther  somehow  was  able  to  look  at  and  use  Scripture 
as  one  transparent  whole;  while  they  looked  on  it  as  a 
collection  of  fragmentary  texts.  This  gave  him  and  other 
Keformers  a  skill  in  the  use  of  Scripture  which  their 
opponents  began  to  feel  that  they  were  deficient  in.  They 
felt  that  if  they  were  to  meet  their  opponents  on  equal 
terms  they  too  must  recognise  a  unity  in  Scripture.  They 
did  so  by  creating  an  external  and  arbitrary  unity  by 
means  of  the  dogmatic  tradition  of  the  mediaeval  Church. 
Hence  the  decree  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  which  manu- 
factured an  artificial  unity  for  Scripture  by  placing  the 
dogmatic  tradition  of  the  Church  alongside  Scripture 
as  an  equal  source  of  authority.  The  reason  why  the 
Reformers  found  a  natural  unity  in  the  Bible,  and  why  tne 
Romanists  had  to  construct  an  artificial  one,  lay,  as  we 
shall  see,  in  their  different  conceptions  of  what  was  meant 
by  saving  faith. 

Mediaeval  theologians  looked  at  the  Bible  as  a  sort  of 
spiritual  law-book,  a  storehouse  of  divinely  communicated 
knowledge  of  doctrinal  truths  and  rules  for  moral  conduct 
— and  nothing  more. 

The  Reformers  saw  in  it  a  new  home  for  a  new  life 
within  which  they  could  have  intimate  fellowship  with 
God  Himself  —  not  merely  knowledge  about  God,  but 
actual  communion  with  Him. 

There  is  one  great  difficulty  attending  the  mediaeval 
conception  of  the  Scriptures,  that  it  does  not  seem 
applicable  to  a  large  part  of  them.  There  is  abundant 
material  provided  for  the  construction  of  doctrines  and 
moral  rules ;  but  that  is  only  a  portion  of  what  is 
contained  in  the  Scriptures.  The  Bible  contains  long  lists 
of  genealogies,  chapters  which  contain  little  else  than  a 
description  of  temple  furniture,  stories  of   simple  human 


456  RELIGIOUS    PRINCTPLKS 

Jife,  and  details  of  national  history.  Tlie  mediseval 
theologian  had  either  to  discard  altogether  a  large  part  of 
the  Bible  or  to  transform  it  somehow  into  doctrinal  and 
moral  teaching.  The  latter  alternative  was  chosen,  and 
the  instrument  of  transformation  was  the  thought  of  the 
various  senses  in  Scripture  which  plays  such  a  prominent 
part  in  every  mediseval  statement  of  the  nature  and  uses 
of  the  revelation  of  God  contained  in  the  Bible.^  No  one 
can  deny  that  a  book,  where  instruction  is  frequently  given 
in  parables,  or  by  means  of  aphorisms  and  proverbial 
sayings,  must  contain  many  passages  which  have  different 
senses.  It  may  be  admitted,  to  use  Origen's  illustrations, 
that  the  grain  of  mustard  seed  is,  literally,  an  actual  seed ; 
morally,  faith  in  the  individual  believer ;  and,  allegorically, 
the  kingdom  of  God ;  ^  or,  though  this  is  more  doubtful, 
that  the  little  foxes  are,  literally,  cubs ;  morally,  sins  in  the 
individual  heart ;  and,  allegorically,  heresies  which  distract 
and  spoil  the  Church.^  But  to  say  that  every  detail  of 
personal  or  national  life  in  the  Old  Testament  or  New  is 
merely  dead  history,  of  no  spiritual  value  until  it  has 
been  transformed  into  a  doctrinal  truth  or  a  moral  rule  by 
the  application  of  the  theory  of  the  fourfold  sense  in 
Scripture,  is  to  destroy  the  historical  character  of  revelation 
altogether,  and,  besides,  to  introduce  complete  uncertainty 
about  what  any  passage  was  really  meant  to  declare.  The 
use  of  a  fourfold  sense — literal,  moral,  allegorical,  and 
analogic — enables  the  reader  to  draw  any  meaning  he 
pleases  from  any  portion  of  Scripture. 

While  mediaeval  theologians,  by  their  bewildering  four- 
fold sense,  made  it  almost  hopeless  to  know  precisely  what 
the  Bible  actually  taught,  another  idea  of  theirs  made  it 
essential  to  salvation  that  men  should  attain  to  an  absolutely 

^  The  medifeval  fourfold  sense  in  Scripture  was  explained  by  Nicholas 
de  Lyra  in  the  distich  : 

'■'■  LiUra  gesta  docet,  quid  credas  Allegoria, 
Moralis  quid  agas,  quo  tendas  Anagogia.'* 

It  is  expounded  succinctly  by  Thomas  Aquinas,  Sumnia  Theologice^  i.  i.  10. 
2  Matt.  xiii.  31.  ^  g^ug  ^f  Songs,  ii.  15. 


HOLY    SCRIPTURE  457 

correct  statement  of  what  the  Scriptures  did  reveal  f.bout 
God  and  man  and  the  relation  between  them.  They  held 
that  faith — the  faith  which  saves — was  not  trust  in  a 
person,  but  assent  to  correct  propositions  about  GrcJ,  the 
universe,  and  the  soul  of  man ;  and  the  saving  character  of 
the  assent  depended  on  the  correctness  of  the  propositions 
assented  to.  It  is  the  submission  of  the  intellect  to  certain 
propositional  statements  which  are  either  seen  to  be  correct 
or  are  accepted  as  being  so  because  guaranteed  in  some 
supernatural  way.  Infallibility  is  looked  upon  as  that 
which  can  guarantee  the  perfect  correctness  of  propositions 
about  God  and  man  in  their  relations  to  each  other. 

If  it  be  necessary  to  employ  the  fourfold  sense  to 
confuse  the  plain  meaning  of  the  greater  portion  of  Scripture, 
and  if  salvation  depends  on  arriving  at  a  perfectly  correct 
intellectual  apprehension  of  abstract  truths  contained  some- 
where in  the  Bible,  then  Lacordaire's  sarcastic  reference  to 
the  Protestant  conception  of  Scripture  is  not  out  of  place. 
He  says  :  "  What  kind  of  a  religion  is  that  which  saves  men 
by  aid  of  a  book  ?  God  has  given  the  book,  but  He  has 
not  guaranteed  your  private  interpretation  of  it.  What 
guarantee  have  you  that  your  thoughts  do  not  shove  aside 
God's  ideas  ?  The  heathen  carves  himself  a  god  out  of 
wood  or  marble  ;  the  Protestant  carves  his  out  of  the  Bible. 
If  there  be  a  true  religion  on  earth,  it  must  be  of  the  most 
serene  and  unmistakable  authority."  ^  We  need  not  wonder 
at  John  Nathin  saying  to  his  perplexed  pupil  in  the  Erfurt 
Convent :  *'  Brother  Martin,  let  the  Bible  alone ;  read  the 
old  teachers ;  reading  the  Bible  simply  breeds  unrest."  * 
We  can  sympathise  with  some  of  the  earlier  printers  of 
the  German  Vulgate  when  they  inserted  in  their  prefaces 
that  readers  must  be  careful  to  understand  the  contents  of 
the  volume  in  the  way  declared  by  the  Church.^  Men 
who  went  to  the  Bible  might  go  wrong,  and  it  was 
spiritual  death  to  make  any  mistake ;  but  all  who  simply 
assented  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Bible  given  in  the 

*  Lettres  djeunes  genSy  k  Eugene  rhennite  (Paris,  1863). 

«  Cf.  above,  p.  200.  »  Of.  above,  p.  161. 


458  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

Church's  theology  were  kept  right  and  had  the  true  or 
Baving  faith.      Such  was  the  mediaeval  idea. 

But  all  this  made  it  impossible  to  find  in  the  Bible  a 
means  of  communion  with  God.  Between  the  God  Who 
had  revealed  Himself  there  and  man,  the  mediseval  theo- 
logian, perhaps  unconsciously  at  first,  had  placed  what  he 
called  the  "  Church,"  but  what  really  was  the  opinions  of 
accredited  theologians  confirmed  by  decisions  of  Councils 
or  Popes.  The  '*  Church  "  had  barred  the  way  of  access 
to  the  mind  and  heart  of  God  in  the  Scriptures  by  inter- 
posing its  authoritative  method  of  interpretation  between 
the  believer  and  the  Bible,  as  it  had  interposed  the  priest- 
hood between  the  sinner  and  the  redeeming  Saviour. 

Just  as  the  Eeformers  had  opposed  their  personal 
experience  of  pardon  won  by  throwing  themselves  on  the 
mercy  of  God  revealed  in  Christ  to  the  intervention  of  the 
Church  between  them  and  God,  so  they  controverted  this 
idea  of  the  Scriptures  by  the  personal  experience  of  what  the 
Bible  had  been  to  them.  They  had  felt  and  known  that 
the  personal  God,  Who  had  made  them  and  redeemed  them, 
was  speaking  to  them  in  this  Book,  and  was  there  making 
manifest  familiarly  His  power  and  His  willingness  to  save. 
The  speech  was  sometimes  obscure,  but  they  read  on  and 
lighted  on  other  passages  which  were  plainer,  and  they 
made  the  easier  explain  the  more  difficult.  The  "  common  " 
man  perhaps  could  not  understand  it  all,  nor  fit  all  the 
sayings  of  Scripture  into  a  connected  whole  of  intellectual 
truth ;  but  all,  plain  men  and  theologians  alike,  could  hear 
their  Father's  voice,  learn  their  Eedeemer's  purpose,  and 
have  faith  in  their  Lord's  promises.  It  was  a  good  thing 
to  put  text  to  text  and  build  a  system  of  Protestant 
divinity  to  which  their  intellects  could  assent ;  but  it  was 
not  essential.  Saving  faith  was  not  intellectual  assent  at 
all.  It  was  simple  trust — the  trust  of  a  child — in  their 
Father's  promises,  which  were  Yea  and  Amen  in  Christ  Jesus. 
The  one  essential  thing  was  to  hear  and  obey  the  personal 
God  speaking  to  them  as  He  had  spoken  all  down  t^hrough 
the  ages  to  His  people,  promising  His  salvation   now  in 


HOLY   SCRIPTURE  459 

direct  words,  now  in  pictures  of  His  dealings  with  a 
favoured  man  or  a  chosen  people.  No  detail  of  life  was 
dead  history ;  for  it  helped  to  fill  the  picture  of  communion 
between  God  and  His  people.  The  picture  was  itself  a 
promise  that  what  had  been  in  the  past  would  be  renewed 
in  their  own  experience  of  fellowship  with  a  gracious  God, 
if  only  they  had  the  same  faith  which  these  saints  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments  enjoyed. 

With  these  thoughts  burning  in  their  hearts,  the  Bible 
could  not  be  to  the  Keformers  what  it  had  been  to  the  medi- 
aeval theologians.  God  was  speaking  to  them  in  it  as  a  man 
speaks  to  his  fellows.  The  simple  historical  sense  was  the 
important  one  in  the  great  majority  of  passages.  The  Scrip- 
ture was  more  than  a  storehouse  of  doctrines  and  moral 
rules.  It  was  over  and  above  the  record  and  picture  of  the 
blessed  experience  which  God's  saints  have  had  in  fellow- 
ship with  their  covenant  God  since  the  first  revelation 
of  the  Promise.  So  they  made  haste  to  translate  the  Bible 
into  all  languages  in  order  to  place  it  in  the  hands  of  every 
man,  and  said  that  the  "  common  m.an  "  with  the  Bible  in  his 
hands  (with  God  speaking  to  him)  could  know  more  about 
the  way  of  salvation  than  Pope  or  Councils  without  the 
Scriptures. 

The  change  of  view  which  separated  the  Reformers  from 
mediaeval  theologians  almost  amounted  to  a  rediscovery  of 
Scripture ;  and  it  was  effected  by  their  conception  of  faith. 
Saving  faith  was  for  them  personal  trust  in  a  personal  Saviour 
Who  had  manifested  in  His  life  and  work  the  Fatherly 
mercy  of  God.  This  was  not  a  mere  theological  definition ; 
it  was  a  description  of  an  experience  which  they  knew  that 
they  had  lived.  It  made  them  see  that  the  word  of  God 
was  a  personal  and  not  a  dogmatic  revelation ;  that  the 
real  meaning  in  it  was  that  God  Himself  was  there  behind 
every  word  of  it, — not  an  abstract  truth,  but  a  personal 
Father.  On  the  one  side,  on  the  divine,  there  was  God 
pouring  out  His  whole  heart  and  revealing  the  inmost 
treasures  of  His  righteousness  and  love  in  Christ  the  Incar- 
nate Word ;  on  the  other  side,  on  the  human,  there  was  the 


460  RELIGIOUS    PRINCIPLES 

believing  soul  looking  straight  through  all  works  and  all 
symbols  aud  all  words  to  Christ  Himself,  united  to  Him  by 
faith  in  the  closest  personal  union.  Such  a  blessed  experi- 
ence— the  feeling  of  direct  fellowship  between  the  believer 
and  God  Incarnate,  of  a  communion  such  as  exists  between 
two  loving  human  souls,  brought  about  by  the  twofold 
stream  of  God's  personal  word  coming  down,  and  man's 
personal  faith  going  up  to  God — could  not  fail  to  give  an 
entirely  new  conception  of  Scripture.  The  mediaeval  Church 
looked  on  the  Jesus  Christ  revealed  in  Scripture  as  a  Teacher 
sent  from  God  ;  and  revelation  was  for  them  above  all  things 
an  imparting  of  speculative  truth.  To  the  Eeformers  the 
chief  function  of  Scripture  was  to  bring  Jesus  Christ  near 
us ;  and  as  Jesus  always  fills  the  full  sphere  of  God  to  them, 
the  chief  end  of  Scripture  is  to  bring  God  near  me.  It  is 
the  direct  message  of  God*s  love  to  me, — not  doctrine,  but 
promise  (for  apart  from  promise,  as  Lutlier  said  uuweariedly, 
faith  does  not  exist) ;  not  display  of  God's  thoughts,  but  of 
God  Himself  as  my  God.  This  manifestation  of  God,  which 
is  recorded  for  us  in  the  Scriptures,  took  place  in  an  his- 
torical process  coming  to  its  fullest  and  highest  in  the 
incarnation  and  historical  work  of  Christ,  and  the  record  of 
the  manifestation  has  been  framed  so  as  to  include  every- 
thing necessary  to  enable  us  to  understand  the  declaration 
of  God's  will  in  its  historical  context  and  in  its  historical 
manifestation.  "  Let  no  pious  Christian,"  says  Luther, 
"  stumble  at  the  simple  word  and  story  that  meet  him  so 
often  in  Scripture."  These  are  never  the  dead  histories  of 
the  mediaeval  theologian, — events  which  have  simply  taken 
place  and  concern  men  no  more.  They  tell  how  God  dealt 
with  His  faithful  people  in  ages  past,  and  they  are  promises 
of  how  He  will  act  towards  us  now.  "  Abraham's  history  is 
precious,"  he  says,  "  because  it  is  filled  so  full  of  God's 
Word,  with  which  all  that  befell  him  is  so  adorned  and  so 
fair,  and  because  God  goes  everywhere  before  him  with  His 
Word,  promising,  commanding,  comforting,  warning,  that  we 
may  verily  see  that  Abraham  was  God's  special  trusty  friend. 
Let  us  mirror  ourselves,  then,  in  this  holy  father  Abraham, 


HOLY    SCRIPTURE  461 

who  walks  not  in  gold  and  velvet,  but  girded,  crowned, 
and  clothed  with  divine  light,  that  is,  with  God's  Word." 
The  simplest  Bible  stories,  even  geographical  and  architec- 
tural details,  may  and  do  give  us  the  sidelights  necessary 
to  complete  the  manifestation  of  God  to  His  people. 

The  question  now  arises,  Where  and  in  what  are  we  to 

recognise   the  infallibility  and   authoritative   character   of 

Scripture  ?     It  is  manifest  that  the  ideas  attaching  to  these 

words  must  change   with  the  changed  conception  of   the 

essential  character  of  that  Scripture  to  which  they  belong. 

Nor  can  the  question  be  discussed  apart  from  the  Eeforma- 

tion  idea  of  saving  faith ;  for  the  two  thoughts  of  Scripture 

and  saving  faith  always  correspond.     In  mediaeval  theology 

they  are  always  primarily  intellectual  and  prepositional ;  in 

Eeformation  thinking,  they  are  always  in  the  first  instance 

'  experimental  and  personal.      In  describing  the  authoritative 

;  character  of  Scripture,  the  Eeformers  always  insisted  that  its 

\  recognition  was  awakened  in   believers  by  that  operation 

I  which  they  called  the  witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit  (Testi- 

i  monium  Spiritus  Sancfi).     Just  as  God  Himself  makes  us 

know  and  feel  the  sense  of  pardon  in  an  inward  experience 

by  a  faith  which  is  His  own  work,  so  they  believed  that  by 

an  operation  of  the  same  Spirit,  believers  were  enabled  to 

recognise  that  God  Himself  is  speaking  to  us  authoritatively 

in  and  through  the  words  of  Scripture. 

/        Their  view  of  what  is   meant   by  the   authority   and 

I  infallibility  of  Scripture  cannot  be  seen  apart  from  what 

they  taught  about  the  relation  between  Scripture  and  the 

■  word  of  God.     They  have  all  the  same  general  conception, 

however  they  may  differ  in  details  in  their  statement.      If 

Luther,  as  his   wont  was,  speaks  more   trenchantly,  and 

Calvin  writes  with  a  clearer   vision   of   the   consequences 

which  must  follow  from  his  assertions,  both  have  the  same 

great  thought  before  them. 

The  Eeformers  drew  a  distinction  between  the  word  of 
God  and  the  Scripture  which  contains  or  presents  that 
word.  This  distinction  was  real  and  not  merely  formal ; 
it  was  more  than  the  difference  between  the  word  of  God 


462  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

and  the  word  of  God  written ;  and  important  consequence? 
were  founded  upon  it.  If  the  use  of  metaphor  be  allowed 
the  word  of  God  is  to  the  Scripture  as  the  soul  is  to  thg 
body.  Luther  believed  that  while  the  word  of  God  waa 
■presented  in  every  part  of  Scripture,  some  portions  make 
it  much  more  evident.  He  instances  the  Gospel  and 
First  Epistle  of  St.  John,  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  especially 
those  to  the  Eomans,  to  the  Galatians,  and  to  the  Ephe- 
sians,  and  the  First  Epistle  of  St.  Peter.^  He  declares 
that  if  Christians  possessed  no  other  books  besides  those, 
the  way  of  salvation  would  be  perfectly  clear.  He  adds 
elsewhere  that  the  word  of  God  shines  forth  with  special 
clearness  in  the  Psalms,  which  he  called  the  Bible  within 
the  Bible. 

Luther  says  that  the  word  of  God  may  be  described 
in  the  phrase  of  St.  Paul,  "  the  Gospel  of  God,  which  He 
promised  afore  by  His  Prophets  in  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
concerning  His  Son,  who  was  born  of  the  seed  of  David 
according  to  the  flesh,  who  was  declared  to  be  the  Son  of 
God  with  power,  according  to  the  spirit  of  holiness,  by  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead."  *  Calvin  calls  it  "  the  spiritual 
teaching,  the  gate,  as  it  were,  by  which  we  enter  into  His 
heavenly  kingdom,"  "  a  mirror  in  which  faith  beholds  God," 
and  "  that  wherein  He  utters  unto  us  His  mercy  in  Christ, 
and  assureth  us  of  His  love  toward  us."*  The  Scots 
Confession  calls  it  the  revelation  of  the  Promise  "  quhilk 

*  Luther  is  continually  reproached  for  having  called  the  Epistle  of  James 
an  Epistle  of  straw ;  it  is  forgotten  that  he  uses  the  term  comparatively 
[Prefaces  to  the  New  Testament;  Works  (Erlangen  edition),  Ixiii.  115): 
"  Summa,  Sanct  Johannis  Evangelium,  und  seine  erste  Epistel,  Sanct  Paulus 
Epistel,  sondeilich  die  zu  Romem,  Galatern,  Ephesern,  nnd  Sanct  Peters 
erste  Epistel,  das  sind  die  Blicher,  die  dir  Christum  zeigen  und  alles  lehren, 
das  dir  zu  wissen  noth  und  selig  ist,  ob  du  schon  kein  ander  Buch  noch 
Lehre  nimmeimehr  sehest  noch  horist.  Darumb  ist  Sanct  Jakobs  Epistel 
ein  recht  strohern  Epistel  gegen  sie,  denn  sie  doch  kein  evangelisch  Art  an 
ihr  hat." 

'  De  Liberlnte  (Erlangen  edition,  Latin),  xxxv.  222  ;  Ronr  i.  1-3. 

*  Oerievan  Catechism;  Institutio,  iii.  ii.  6:  "The  word  itself,  hmoevef 
conveyed  to  it^  is  a  minor  in  which  faith  may  behold  God  "  ;  Second  Geneva 
Catechism, 


HOLY    SCRIPTURE  463 

as  it  was  repeated  and  made  mair  clear  from  time  to  time ; 
so  was  it  imbraced  with  joy,  and  maist  constantlie  received 
of  al  the  faithful."  ^  And  Zwingli  declares  it  to  be  "  that 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  very  Son  of  God,  has  revealed 
to  us  the  will  of  the  Heavenly  Father,  and,  with  His 
innocence,  has  redeemed  us  from  death."  *  It  is  the  sum 
of  God's  commands,  threatenings,  and  promises,  addressed 
to  our  faith,  and  above  all  the  gospel  offer  of  Christ  to  us. 
This  word  of  God  need  not  take  the  form  of  direct  exhorta- 
tion ;  it  may  be  recognised  in  the  simple  histories  of  men 
or  of  nations  recorded  in  the  Scripture. 

This  true  and  real  distinction  between  the  word  of 
God  and  Scripture  may  easily  be  perverted  to  something 
which  all  the  Eeformers  would  have  repudiated.  It  must 
not  be  explained  by  the  common  mystical  illustration  of 
kernel  and  husk,  which  husk  (the  record)  may  be  thrown 
away  when  the  kernel  (the  word)  has  been  once  reached 
and  laid  hold  of.  Nor  can  it  be  used  to  mean  that  one 
part  of  the  Bible  is  the  word  of  God  and  that  another  is 
not.  The  Eeformers  uniformly  teach  that  the  substance  of 
all  Scripture  is  the  word  of  God,  and  that  what  is  no  part 
of  the  record  of.  the  word  of  God  is  not  Scripture.  Finally, 
the  distinction  between  the  two  need  not  prevent  us  saying 
that  the  Scripture  is  the  word  of  God.  Luther  is  very 
peremptory  about  this.  He  says  that  he  is  ready  to 
discuss  differences  with  any  opponent  who  admits  that 
the  evangelical  writings  are  the  word  of  God ;  but  that 
if  this  be  denied  he  will  refuse  to  argue ;  for  where  is 
the  good  of  reasoning  with  anyone  who  denies  first 
principles  ?  {prima  principia).^  Only  it  must  be  clearly 
understood  that  the  copula  is  does  not  express  logical 
identity,  but  some  such  relation  as  can  be  more  exactly 
rendered  by  contains,  presents,  conveys,  records, — all  of  which 
phrases  are  used  in  the  writings  of  Eeformers  or  in  the 
creeds  of  the  Eefonnation   Churches.      The  main  thing  to 

*  (Dunlop),  A  CoUecfAon  of  Covfesioiis  of  Faith,  ii.  26. 
■  Zurich  Articles  of  1523,  i.  ii. 

*  Luther's  Works  (Krlangen  edition),  Ivii.  34. 


464  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

remember  is  that  the  distinction  is  not  to  be  made  use 
of  to  deny  to  the  substance  of  Scripture  those  attributes 
of  authority  and  infallibility  which  belong  to  the  word  of 
God. 

I  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  vital  religious  interest 
in  the  distinction.  In  the  first  place  it  indicates  what 
is  meant  by  the  infallibility  of  Scripture,  aud  in  the  second 
it  enables  us  to  distinguish  between  the  divine  and  the 
human  elements  in  the  Bible. 

The  authoritative  character  and  infallibility  belong 
really  and  primarily  to  the  word  of  God,  and  only  second- 
arily to  the  Scriptures, — to  Scripture  only  because  it  is  the 
record  which  contains,  presents,  or  conveys  the  word  of 
God.  It  is  this  word  of  God,  this  personal  manifestation 
to  us  for  our  salvation  of  God  in  His  promises,  which  is 
authoritative  and  infallible ;  and  Scripture  shares  these 
attributes  only  in  so  far  as  it  is  a  vehicle  of  spiritual  truth. 
It  is  the  unanimous  declaration  of  the  Eeformers  that 
Scripture  is  Scripture  because  it  gives  us  that  knowledge 
of  God  and  of  His  will  which  is  necessary  for  salvation ; 
because  it  presents  to  the  eye  of  faith  God  Himself  person- 
ally manifesting  Himself  in  Christ.  It  is  this  presentation 
of  God  Himself  and  of  His  will  for  our  salvation  which  is 
infallible  and  authoritative.  But  this  manifestation  of  God 
Himself  is  something  spiritual,  and  is  to  be  apprehended  by 
a  spiritual  faculty  which  is  faith,  and  the  Eeformers  and 
the  Confessions  of  the  Reformation  do  not  recognise  any 
infallibility  or  divine  authority  which  is  otherwise  appre- 
hended than  by  faith.  If  this  be  so,  the  infallil)ihty  is 
of  quite  another  kind  from  that  dee^cribed  by  mediaeval 
theologians  or  modern  Roman  Catholics,  and  it  is  also  very 
different  from  what  many  modern  Protestants  attribute 
to  the  Scriptures  when  they  do  not  distinguish  them  from 
the  word  of  God.  With  the  mediaeval  theologian  infalli- 
bility was  something  which  guaranteed  the  perfect  correct- 
ness of  abstract  propositions;  with  some  modern  Protestants 
it  consists  in  the  conception  that  the  record  contains  not 
even  the  smallest  error  in  word  or  description  of  fact — 


HOLY   SCRIPTURE  465 

in  its  inerrancy.  But  neither  inerrancy  nor  the  correctness 
of  abstract  propositions  is  apprehended  by  faith  in  the 
Eeformers'  sense  of  that  word ;  they  are  matters  of  fact,  to 
be  accepted  or  rejected  by  the  ordinary  faculties  of  man. 
The  infallibility  and  authority  which  need  faith  to  perceive 
them  are,  and  must  be,  something  very  different;  they 
produce  the  conviction  that  in  the  manifestation  of  God 
in  His  word  there  lies  infallible  power  to  save.  This  is 
given,  all  the  Eeformers  say,  by  the  Witness  of  the  Spirit ; 
"  the  true  kirk  alwaies  heares  and  obeyis  the  voice  of  her 
awin  spouse  and  pastor."^  Calvin  discusses  the  authority 
and  credibility  of  Scripture  in  his  Instihitio,  and  says :  "  Let 
it  be  considered,  then,  as  an  undeniable  truth  that  they 
who  have  been  inwardly  taught  of  the  Spirit  feel  an  entire 
acquiescence  in  the  Scripture,  and  that  it  is  self -authenticated, 
carrying  with  it  its  own  evidence,  and  ought  not  to  be  made 
the  subject  of  demonstration  and  arguments  from  reason ; 
but  that  it  obtains  the  credit  which  it  deserves  with  us  by 
the  testimony  of  the  Spirit."*  This  is  a  religious  con- 
ception of  infallibility  very  different  from  the  mediaeval  or 
the  modern  Eomanist. 

The  distinction  between  the  word  of  God  and  Scrip- 
ture also  serves  to  distinguish  between  the  divine  and  the 
human  elements  in  Scripture,  and  to  give  each  its  proper 
place. 

Infallibility  and  divine  authority  belong  to  the  sphere 
of  faith  and  of  the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  and,  therefore,  to 
that  personal  manifestation  of  God  and  of  His  will  toward 
us  which  is  conveyed  or  presented  to  us  in  every  part  of 
Scripture.  But  this  manifestation  is  given  in  a  course  of 
events  which  are  part  of  human  history,  in  lives  of  men 
and  peoples,  in  a  record  which  in  outward  form  is  like 
other  human  writings.  If  every  part  of  Scripture  is 
divine,  every  part  of  it  is  also  human.  The  supernatural 
reality  is  incased  in  human  realities.  To  apprehend  tlie 
former,  faith  illumined  by   the  Holy  Spirit  is  necessary ; 

*  Scots  Confession,  Art.  xix.  ;  (Duulop),  A  Collection  of  Con/essicnis,  p.  78. 

*  Institutio,  I.  vii.  5. 

30* 


466  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

but  it  is  sufficient  to  use  the  ordinary  methods  of  research 
to  learn  the  credibility  of  the  history  in  Scripture.  When 
the  Keformers  distinguished  between  the  word  of  God  and 
Scripture  which  conveys  or  presents  it,  and  when  they  de- 
clared that  the  authority  and  infallibility  of  that  word 
belonged  to  the  region  of  faith,  they  made  that  authority 
and  infallibility  altogether  independent  of  questions  that 
might  be  raised  about  the  human  agencies  through  which 
the  book  came  into  its  present  shape.  It  is  not  a  matter 
belonging  to  the  region  of  faith  when  the  books  which 
record  the  word  of  God  were  written,  or  by  whom,  or  in 
what  style,  or  how  often  they  were  edited  or  re-edited.  It 
is  not  a  matter  for  faith  whether  incidents  happened  in  one 
country  or  in  another ;  whether  the  account  of  Job  be  literal 
history,  or  a  poem  based  on  old  traditions  in  which  the 
author  has  used  the  faculty  of  imagination  to  illustrate 
the  problems  of  God's  providence  and  man's  probation ; 
whether  genealogical  tables  give  the  names  of  men  or  of 
countries  and  peoples.  All  these  and  the  like  matters 
belong  to  the  human  side  of  the  record.  No  special 
illumination  of  faith  is  needed  to  apprehend  and  under- 
stand them.  They  are  matters  for  the  ordinary  faculties 
of  man,  and  subject  to  ordinary  human  investigation. 
Luther  availed  himself  freely  of  the  liberty  thus  given. 
He  never  felt  himself  bound  to  accept  the  traditional 
ideas  about  the  extent  of  the  canon,  the  authorship  of  the 
books  of  the  Bible,  or  even  about  the  credibility  of  some 
of  the  things  recorded.  He  said,  speaking  about  Genesis, 
"  What  though  Moses  never  wrote  it  ? "  ^  It  was  enough 
for  him  that  the  book  was  there  and  that  he  could  read  it. 
He  thought  that  the  Books  of  Kings  were  more  worthy 
of  credit  than  the  Books  of  Chronicles ;  ^  and  he  believed 
that  the  prophets  had  not  always  given  the  kings  of  Israel 
the  best  political  advice.* 

But  while  the  Bible  is  human  literature,  and  as  such 
may  be  and  must  be  subjected  to  the  same  tests  which  are 

*  Luther's  Works  (Erlangen  edition),  Ivii.  35. 

2  Jbid.  Ixii.  132,  '  JMd.  (2ud  Erlaugeu  editi  )n),  viiL  23. 


HOLY   SCRIPTURE  467 

applied  to  ordinary  literature,  it  is  the  record  of  the  revela- 
tion of  God,  and  has  been  carefully  guarded  and  protected 
by  God.  This  thought  always  enters  into  the  conception 
which  the  Eeformers  had  of  Scripture.  They  speak  of  the 
singular  care  and  providence  of  God  which  has  preserved 
the  Scriptures  in  such  a  way  that  His  people  always  have 
a  full  and  unmistakable  declaration  in  them  of  His  mind 
and  will  for  their  salvation.  This  idea  for  ever  forbids  a 
careless  or  irreverent  biblical  criticism,  sheltering  itself 
under  the  liberty  of  dealing  with  the  records  of  revelation. 
No  one  can  say  beforehand  how  much  or  how  little  of  the 
historic  record  is  essential  to  preserve  the  faith  of  the 
Church ;  but  every  devout  Christian  desires  to  have  it  in 
large  abundance.  No  one  can  plead  the  liberty  which 
the  principles  of  the  Eeformers  secure  for  dealing  with  the 
record  of  Scripture  as  a  justification  in  taking  a  delight  in 
reducing  to  a  miaimum  the  historical  basis  of  the  Christian 
faith.  Careless  or  irreverent  handling  of  the  text  of  Holy 
Scripture  is  what  all  the  Eeformers  abhorred.^ 

*  It  maybe  useful  to  note  the  statements  about  the  authority  of  Scripture 

in  the  earlier  Eeforniation  creeds.  The  Lutherans,  always  late  in  discern- 
ing the  true  doctrinal  bearings  of  their  religious  certainties,  did  not  deem 
it  needful  to  assert  dogmatically  the  supreme  authority  of  Scripture  until 
the  second  generation  of  Protestantism.  The  Schmalkald  Articles  and  the 
Augsburg  Confession  expressly  assert  that  human  traditions  are  among 
abuses  that  ought  to  be  done  away  with  ;  but  they  do  not  condemn  them 
as  authorities  set  up  by  their  opponents  in  opposition  to  the  word  of  God, 
only  as  things  that  burden  the  conscience  and  incline  men  to  false  ways  of 
trying  to  be  at  peace  with  God  (Augsburg  Confession,  as  given  in  SchafF, 
The  Creeds  of  the  Evangelical  Protestant  Churches,  p.  65 ;  Schmalkald 
Articles,  xv.).  It  was  not  until  1576,  in  the  Torgau  Book,  and  in  1580  in 
the  Formula  Concordice,  that  they  felt  the  necessity  of  declaring  dogmatic- 
ally and  in  opposition  to  the  Roman  Catholics  that  "the  only  standard  by 
which  all  dogmas  and  all  teachers  must  be  valued  and  judged  is  no  other 
than  the  prophetic  and  apostolic  writings  of  the  Old  and  of  the  New 
Testaments"  (§  1). 

The  Reformed  theologians,  with  the  clearer  dogmatic  insight  which 
they  always  show^ed,  felt  the  need  of  a  statement  about  the  theologi- 
cal place  of  Scripture  very  early,  and  declared  in  the  First  Helvetic 
Confession  (1536)  that  "Canonic  Scripture,  the  word  of  God,  given 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  and  set  forth  to  the  world  by  the  prophets  and 
apostles,  the  most  perfect  and  ancient  of  all  philosophies,  alone 
contains  perfectly  all  piety  and  the  whole  rule  of  life."  The 
various   Reformed   Confessions,    inspired   by    Calvin,   followed  this 


458  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 


I  5.   The  Person  of  Christ, 

**  No  one  can  deny,"  said  Luther,  "  that  we  hold,  be- 
lieve, sing,  and  confess  all  things  in  correspondence  with 
the  Apostles'  Creed,  the  faith  of  the  old  Church,  that  we 
make  nothing  new  therein  nor  add  anything  thereto,  and 
in  this  way  we  belong  to  the  old  Church  and  are  one  with 
it."  Both  the  Augsburg  Confession  and  the  Schmalkald 
Articles  begin  with  restating  the  doctrines  of  the  old 
Catholic  Church  as  these  are  given  in  the  Apostles', 
Nicene,  and  Athanasian  Creeds,  the  two  latter  being  always 
regarded  by  Luther  as  explanatory  of  the  Apostles'  Creed. 
His  criticism  of  theological  doctrines  was  always  confined 
to  the  theories  introduced  by  the  Schoolmen,  and  to  the 
perversion  of  the  old  doctrines  of  the  Church  introduced 
in  mediaeval  times  mainly  to  bring  these  doctrines  into 
conformity  with  the  principles  of  the  philosophy  of  Aristotle. 
He  brought  two  charges  against  the  Scholastic  Theology. 

example,  and  the  supreme  authority  of  Scripture  was  set  forth  in  all  the 
symbolical  books  of  the  Keformed  Churches  of  Switzerland,  France,  England, 
the  Netherlands,  Scotland,  etc. — The  Geneva  Confession  of  1536  (Art.  1), 
The  Second  Helvetic  Confession  of  1562  (Art.  1),  The  French  Confession  of 
1559  (Arts.  3-6),  The  Belgic  Confession  of  1561  (Arts.  4-7),  The  Thirty-nine 
Articles  of  1563  and  1571  (Art.  6),  The  Scots  Confession  of  1560  (Art.  19). 
It  is  instructive,  however,  to  note  how  this  is  done.  The  key  to  the  central 
note  in  all  these  dogmatic  statements  is  to  be  found  in  the  first  and  second 
of  The  Sixty -seven  Theses  published  in  1523  by  Zwingli  at  Zurich,  where 
it  is  declared  that  all  who  say  that  the  Evangel  is  of  no  value  apart  from 
its  confirmation  by  the  Church  err  and  blaspheme  against  God,  and  where 
the  sum  of  the  Evangel  is  "that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  very  Son  of  God, 
has  revealed  to  us  the  will  of  the  heavenly  Father,  and  with  His  innocence 
has  redeemed  us  from  death  and  has  reconciled  us  to  God."  The  main 
thought,  therefore,  in  all  these  Confessions  is  not  to  assert  the  formal 
supremacy  of  Scripture  over  Tradition,  but  rather  to  declare  the  supreme 
value  of  Scripture  which  reveals  God's  good  will  to  us  in  Jesus  Christ  to  be 
received  by  faith  alone  over  all  human  traditions  which  would  lead  us  astray 
from  God  and  from  true  faith.  The  Reformers  had  before  them  not  simply 
the  theological  desire  to  define  precisely  the  nature  of  that  authority  to 
whicli  all  Christian  teaching  appeals,  but  the  religious  need  to  cling  to  the 
divinely  revealed  way  of  salvation  and  to  turn  away  from  all  human  inter- 
position and  corruption.  They  desire  to  make  known  that  they  trust  God 
rather  than  man.  Hence  almost  all  of  them  are  careful  to  express  clearly 
the  need  for  the  Witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 


THE   PERSON   OF    CHRIST  469 

It  was,  he  insisted,  committed  to  the  idea  of  work-right- 
eousness ;  whatever  occasional  protest  might  be  made  against 
the  conception,  he  maintained  that  this  thought  of  work- 
righteousness  was  so  interwoven  with  its  warp  and  woof 
that  the  whole  must  be  swept  away  ere  the  old  and  true 
Christian  Theology  could  be  rediscovered.  He  also  de- 
declared  it  was  sophistry ;  and  by  that  he  meant  that  it 
played  with  the  outsides  of  doctrine,  asked  and  solved 
questions  which  had  nothing  to  do  with  real  Christian 
theology,  that  the  imposing  intellectual  edifice  was  hollow 
within,  that  its  deity  was  not  the  God  and  Father  revealed 
in  Jesus  Christ,  but  the  unknown  God,  the  God  who  could 
never  be  revealed  by  metaphysics  larded  with  detached  texts 
of  Scripture,  the  abstract  entity  of  pagan  philosophy. 
With  an  unerring  instinct  he  fastened  on  the  Scholastic 
devotion  to  Aristotle  as  the  reason  why  what  professed  to 
be  Christian  theology  had  been  changed  into  something 
else.  Scholastic  Philosophy  or  Theology  (for  the  two  are 
practically  the  same)  defined  itself  as  the  attempt  to 
reconcile  faith  and  reason^  and  the  definition  has  been 
generally  accepted.  Verbally  it  is  correct ;  really  it  is  very 
misleading  from  the  meanings  attached  to  the  words  faith 
and  reason.  With  the  Schoolmen,  faith  in  this  contrast 
between  faith  and  reason  meant  the  sum  of  patristic 
teaching  about  the  verities  of  the  Christian  religion  ex- 
tracted by  the  Fathers  from  the  Holy  Scriptures;  and 
reason  meant  the  sum  of  philosophical  principles  extracted 
from  the  writings  of  ancient  philosophers,  and  especially 
from  Aristotle.  The  great  Schoolmen  conceived  it  to  be 
their  task  to  construct  a  system  of  Christian  Philosophy 
by  combining  patristic  doctrinal  conclusions  with  the  con- 
clusions of  human  reasoning  which  they  behoved  to  be 
given  in  their  highest  form  in  the  writings  of  the  ancient 
Grecian  sages.  They  actually  used  the  conceptions  of 
the  Fathers  as  material  to  give  body  to  the  forms  of 
thought  found  ready  made  for  them  in  the  speculations  of 
Aristotle  and  Plato.  The  Christian  material  was  moulded 
to  fit  the  pagan  forms,  and  in  consequence  lost  its  most 


470  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

essentially  Christian  characteristics.  One  can  see  how 
the  most  evangelical  of  the  Schoolmen,  Thomas  Aquinas, 
tries  in  vain  to  break  through  the  meshes  of  the  Aris- 
totelian net  in  his  discussions  on  merit  and  satisfaction  in 
his  Summa  Theologice}  He  had  to  start  from  the  thought 
of  God  as  (1)  the  Absolute,  and  (2)  as  the  Primum  Movens, 
the  Causa  efficiens  prima,  the  Intelligens  a  quo  omnes  res 
naturales  ordinantur  in  finem — conceptions  which  can 
never  imprison  without  practically  destroying  the  vision 
of  the  Father  who  has  revealed  Himself  in  the  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ.  His  other  starting-point,  that  man  is  to  be 
described  as  the  possessor  of  free  will  in  the  Aristotelian 
sense  of  the  term,  will  never  contain  the  Christian  doc- 
trine of  man's  complete  dependence  on  God  in  his  salva- 
tion. It  inevitably  led  to  work-righteousness.  This  was 
the  "sophistry"  Luther  protested  against  and  which  he 
swept  away. 

He  then  claimed  that  he  stood  where  the  old  Catholic 
Church  had  taken  stand,  that  his  theology  like  its  was 
rooted  in  the  faith  of  God  as  Trinity  and  in  the  belief  in 
the  Person  of  Christ,  the  Eevealer  of  God.  The  old  theo- 
logy had  nothing  to  do  with  Mariolatry  or  saint  worship ; 
it  revered  the  triune  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  His  Son  and 
man's  Saviour.  Luther  could  join  hands  with  Athanasius 
across  twelve  centuries.  He  had  done  a  work  not  unlike 
that  of  the  great  Alexandrian.  His  rejection  of  the 
Scholastic  Aristotelianism  may  be  compared  with  Athan- 
asius' refusal  to  allow  the  Logos  theology  any  longer  to 
confuse  the  Christian  doctrines  of  God  and  the  Person  of 
Christ.  Both  believed  that  in  all  thinking  about  God  they 
ought  to  keep  their  eyes  fixed  upon  His  redemptive  work 
manifested  in  the  historical  Christ.  Athanasius,  like 
Luther,  brought  theology  back  to  religion  from  "  sophistry," 
and  had  for  his  starting-point  an  inward  religious  experi- 
ence that  his  Kedeemer  was  the  God  who  made  heaven  and 
earth.     The  great  leaders  in  the  ancient  Church,  Luther 

'  Ck>mpare  espeoially  the  discussions  in  the  first  part  of  the  Second  Book 
of  the  Summa, 


THE   PERSON   OF   CHRIST  471 

believed,  held  as  he  did  that  to  have  conceptions  about 
God,  to  construct  a  real  Christian  theology,  it  was  necessary 
first  of  all  to  know  God  Himself,  and  that  He  was  only  to  be 
known  through  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  had  gone 
through  the  same  experience  as  they  had  done ;  he  could 
fully  sympathise  with  them,  and  could  appropriate  the 
expressions  in  which  they  had  described  and  crystallised 
what  they  had  felt  and  known,  and  that  without  paying 
much  attention  to  the  niceties  of  technical  language. 
These  doctrines  had  not  been  dead  formulas  to  them,  but 
the  expression  of  a  living  faith.  He  could  therefore  take 
the  old  dogmas  and  make  them  live  again  in  an  age  in 
which  it  seemed  as  if  they  had  lost  all  their  vitality. 

"  From  the  time  of  Athanasius,"  says  Harnack,  "  there 
had  been  no  theologian  who  had  given  so  much  living  power 
for  faith  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Godhead  of  Christ  as  Luther 
did ;  since  the  time  of  Cyril,  no  teacher  had  arisen  in  the 
Church  for  whom  the  mystery  of  the  union  of  the  two 
natures  in  Christ  was  so  full  of  comfort  as  for  Luther — '  I 
have  a  better  provider  than  all  angels  are :  he  lies  in  the 
cradle  and  hangs  on  the  breast  of  a  virgin,  but  sits,  never- 
theless, at  the  right  hand  of  the  ahnighty  father  * ;  no  mystic 
philosopher  of  antiquity  spoke  with  greater  conviction  and 
delight  of  the  sacred  nourishment  in  the  Eucharist.  The 
German  reformer  restored  life  to  the  formulas  of  Greek 
Christianity :  he  gave  them  back  to  faith."  ^ 

But  if  Luther  accepted  the  old  formulas  describing  the 
Nature  of  God  and  the  Person  of  Christ,  he  did  so  in  a 
thoroughly  characteristic  way.  He  had  no  liking  for  theo- 
logical technical  terms,  though  he  confessed  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  use  them.  He  disliked  the  old  term  Jiomoousios  to 
describe  the  relation  between  the  Persons  in  the  Trinity, 
and  preferred  the  word  "  oneness  " ;  ^  he  ev%n  disliked  the 
term  Trinity,  or  at  least  its  German  equivalents,  Dreifaltig- 

'  Harnack,  History  of  Dogma,  vii.  173-174. 

'  Luther  s  Works  (Erlangen  edition),  Latin,  xxxvi.  506  :  "  Quodsi  odit 
anima  mea  vocem  homoousion,  et  nolim  ea  uti,  non  ero  haereticus,  quis 
enim  me  coget  uti,  modo  rem  teneam,  quae  in  concilio  per  scripturas  definita 
est  t "  It  may  be  remarked  that  Athanasius  himself  did  not  like  the  word 
that  has  become  so  associated  with  his  name. 


472  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

keit  or  Dreiheit — they  were  not  good  German  words,  he 
said ;  ^  he  called  the  technical  terms  used  in  the  old  creeds 
wcahula  mathematica ;  *  he  was  careful  to  avoid  using  them 
in  his  Short  and  even  in  his  Long  Catechism.  But  Jesus 
Christ  was  for  him  the  mirror  of  the  Fatherly  heart  of  God, 
and  therefore  was  God ;  God  Himself  was  the  only  Com- 
forter to  bring  rest  to  the  human  soul,  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
was  God ;  and  the  old  creeds  confessed  One  God,  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  and  the  confession  contented  him 
whatever  words  were  used.  Besides,  he  rejoiced  to  place 
himself  side  by  side  with  the  Christians  of  ancient  days, 
who  trusted  God  in  Christ  and  were  free  from  the  "  sophis- 
tries "  of  the  Schoolmen. 

Although  Luther  accepted,  honestly  and  joyfully,  the 
old  theology  about  God  and  the  Person  of  Christ,  he  put  a 
new  and  richer  meaning  into  it.  Luther  lets  us  see  over 
and  over  again  that  he  believed  that  the  only  thing  worth 
considering  in  theology  was  the  divine  work  of  Christ  and 
the  experience  that  we  have  of  it  through  faith.  He  did 
not  believe  that  we  have  any  real  knowledge  of  God  outside 
these  limits.  Beyond  them  there  is  the  unknown  God  of 
philosophical  paganism,  the  God  whom  Jews,  Turks,  pagans, 
and  nominal  Christians  ignorantly  worship.  In  order  to 
know  God  it  is  necessary  to  know  Him  through  the  Jesus 
Christ  of  history.  Hence  with  Luther,  Christ  fills  the 
whole  sphere  of  God :  "  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen 
the  Father,"  and  conversely :  "  He  that  hath  not  seen  Me 
hath  not  seen  the  Father."  The  historical  Jesus  Christ 
is  for  Luther  the  revealer  and  the  only  revealer  of  the 
Father.  The  revelation  is  given  in  the  wonderful  experi- 
ence of  faith  in  which  Jesus  compels  us  to  see  God  in  Him 
— the  whole  of  God,  Who  has  kept  nothing  back  which  He 
could   have   given   us.     It  is   very  doubtful  whether   the 

^Luther's  Works  (2nd  Erlangen  edition),  vi.  358:  "Dreyfaltigkeit  ist 
ein  recht  bbse  Deutsch,  denn  in  der  Gottheit  ist  die  hochste  Einigkeit. 
Etliche  nennen  es  Dreyheit ;  aber  das  lautet  allzuspottisch  "  ;  he  says  that 
the  expression  is  not  in  Scripture,  and  adds:  "darum  lautet  es  auch  kalt 
und  viel  besser  sprach  man  Gott  denn  die  Dreyfaltigkeit "  (xii.  408). 

« Ibid.  V.  236. 


THE   PERSON    OF   CHRIST  473 

framers  of  the  old  creeds  ever  grasped  this  thought.  The 
great  expounder  of  the  old  theology,  Augustine,  certainly 
did  not.  The  failure  to  enter  into  it  showed  itself  not 
merely  in  the  doctrine  of  God,  but  also  in  the  theories  of 
grace.  With  Luther  all  theology  is  really  Christology ;  he 
knew  no  other  God  than  the  God  Who  had  manifested  Him- 
self in  the  historical  Christ,  and  made  us  see  in  the  miracle 
of  faith  that  He  is  our  salvation.  This  at  once  simplifies  all 
Christian  theology  and  cuts  it  clearly  away  from  that 
Scholastic  which  Luther  called  "sophistry."  Why  need 
Christians  puzzle  themselves  over  the  Eternal  Something 
which  is  not  the  world  when  they  have  the  Father  ?  On 
the  old  theology  the  work  of  Christ  was  practically  limited 
to  procuring  the  forgiveness  of  sins.  There  it  ended  and 
other  gracious  operations  of  God  began — operations  of  grace. 
So  there  grew  the  complex  system  of  expiations,  and  satis- 
factions, of  magical  sacraments  and  saints'  intercessions. 
These  were  all  at  once  swept  away  when  the  whole  God 
was  seen  revealed  in  Christ  in  the  vision  of  faith  and 
nowhere  else. 

Like  Athanasius,  Luther  found  his  salvation  in  the 
Deity  of  Christ. 

"  We  must  have  a  Saviour  Who  is  more  than  a  saint  or 
an  angel ;  for  if  He  were  no  more,  better  and  greater  than 
these,  there  were  no  helping  us.  But  if  he  be  God,  then  the 
treasure  is  so  ponderous  that  it  outweighs  and  Hfts  away 
sin  and  death ;  and  not  only  so,  but  also  gives  eternal  life. 
This  is  our  Christian  faith,  and  therefore  we  rightly  confess : 
*  I  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  His  only  Son,  our  Lord,  Who  was 
born  of  Mary,  suffered  and  died.'  By  this  faith  hold  fast, 
and  though  heathen  and  heretic  are  ever  so  wise  thou  shalt 
be  blessed."  ^ 

He  repeats  this  over  and  over  again.  If  we  cannot  say 
God  died  for  us,  if  it  was  only  a  man  who  suffered  on  the 
cross,  then  we  are  lost,  was  Luther's  firmest  conviction; 
and  the  thought  of  the  Divinity  of  Christ  meant  more  to 
Luther  than  it  did  to  previous  theologians.     The  old  theo- 

*  Luther' »  Works  (Erlangen  edition),  xlvii.  3,  4. 


474  RELIGIOUS    PRINCIPLES 

logy  had  described  the  two  Natures  in  the  One  Person  of 
the  God-man  in  such  a  way  as  to  suggest  that  the  only 
function  of  the  Divine  was  to  give  to  the  human  work 
of  Christ  the  importance  necessary  to  effect  salvation. 
Luther  always  refused  to  adopt  this  limited  way  of  regard- 
ing the  Divinity  of  the  Saviour.  He  did  not  refuse  to 
adopt  and  use  the  phraseology  of  his  predecessors.  Like 
them,  he  spoke  of  the  two  Natures  in  the  One  Person  of 
Christ.  But  it  is  plain  from  his  expositions  of  the  Creed, 
and  from  his  criticisms  of  the  current  theological  termi- 
nology, that  he  did  not  like  the  expression.  He  thought 
that  it  suggested  an  idea  that  was  wrong,  and  that  had  to 
be  guarded  against.  He  says  that  we  must  beware  of 
thinking  as  if  the  deity  and  humanity  in  Christ  are  so 
externally  united  that  we  may  look  at  the  one  apart  from 
the  other. 

"This  is  the  first  principle  and  most  excellent  article 
how  Christ  is  the  Father :  that  we  are  not  to  doubt  that 
whatsoever  the  man  says  and  does  is  reckoned  and  must  be 
reckoned  as  said  and  done  in  heaven  for  all  angels ;  in  the 
world  for  all  rulers ;  in  hell  for  all  devils ;  in  the  heart  for 
every  evil  conscience  and  all  secret  thoughts.  For  if  we  are 
certain  of  this :  that  what  Jesus  thinks,  speaks,  and  wills 
the  Father  also  wills,  then  I  defy  all  that  may  fight  against 
me.  For  here  in  Christ  have  I  the  Father's  heart  and 
will"! 

He  brings  the  thought  of  the  Person  of  Christ  into  the 
closest  relation  to  our  personal  experience.  It  is  not  simply 
a  doctrine — an  intellectual  something  outside  us.  It  is 
part  of  that  blessed  experience  which  is  called  Justification 
by  Faith.  It  is  inseparably  connected  with  the  recognition 
that  we  are  not  saved  by  means  of  the  good  deeds  which 
we  can  do,  but  solely  by  the  work  of  Christ.  It  is  what 
makes  us  cease  all  work-righteousness  and  trust  in  God 
alone  as  He  has  revealed  Himself  in  Christ.  When  we 
know  and  feel  that  it  is  God  who  is  working  for  us,  then 
we  instinctively  cease  trying  to  think  that  we  can  work 

»  Luther's  Works  (Erlangen  edition),  ilix.  183,  184. 


THE   PERSON   OF   CHRIST  475 

out  our  own  salvation.^  Hence  the  Person  of  Christ  can 
never  be  a  mere  doctrine  for  the  true  Christian  to  be 
inquired  about  by  the  intellect.  It  is  something  which  we 
carry  about  with  us  as  part  of  our  lives. 

"  To  know  Christ  in  the  true  way  means  to  know  that 
He  died  for  us,  that  He  piled  our  sins  upon  Himself,  so  that 
we  hold  all  our  own  affairs  as  nothing  and  let  them  all  go, 
and  cling  only  to  the  faith  that  Christ  has  given  Himself 
for  us,  and  that  His  sufferings  and  piety  and  virtues  are  all 
mine.  When  I  know  this  I  must  hold  Him  dear  in  return, 
for  I  must  be  loving  to  such  a  man." 

Ke  insists  on  the  human  interest  that  the  Man  Jesus  Christ 
has  for  us,  and  declares  that  we  must  take  as  much  interest 
in  His  whole  life  on  earth  as  in  that  of  our  closest  friend. 

Perhaps  it  ought  to  be  added,  although  what  has  been 
said  implies  it,  that  Luther  always  approached  the  Person 
of  Christ  from  his  mediatorial  work,  and  not  from  any 
previously  thought  out  ideas  of  what  Godhead  must  be, 
and  what  manhood  must  be,  and  how  they  can  be  united. 
He  begins  with  the  mediatorial  and  saving  work  of  Christ 
as  that  is  revealed  in  the  blessed  experience  which  faith, 
the  gift  of  God,  creates.  He  rises  from  the  office  to  the 
Person,  and  does  not  descend  from  the  Person  to  the  office. 
"  Christ  is  not  called  Christ  because  He  has  the  two  Natures. 
What  does  that  matter  to  me  ?  He  bears  this  glorious  and 
comforting  name  because  of  His  Office  and  Work  which 
He  has  undertaken."  ^  It  is  in  this  way  that  He  becomes 
the  Saviour  and  the  Redeemer. 

It  can  scarcely  be  said  that  all  the  Reformers  worked 
out  the  conception  of  the  Person  of  Christ  in  the  same  way 
as  Luther,  although  almost  all  these  thoughts  can  be  found 
in  Calvin,  but  the  overshadowing  conception  is  always 
present  to  their  mind — Christ  fills  the  full  sphere  of  God. 
That  is  the  characteristic  of  Reformation  thought  and  of 
Reformation  piety,  and  appears  everywhere  in  the  writings 
of   the   Reformers  and   in   the  worship   and   rites   of   the 

*  LtUher'a  Works  (2ad  Erlangen  edition),  xii.  244. 

•  Ibid,  xii.  259. 


476  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

Eeformed  ChurclL  To  go  into  the  matter  exhaustively 
would  necessitate  more  space  than  can  be  given ;  but 
the  following  instances  may  be  taken  as  indicating  the 
universal  thought. 

1.  The  Eeformers  swept  away  every  contemplation  of 
intercessors  who  were  supposed  to  share  with  our  Lord 
the  procuring  of  pardon  and  salvation,  and  they  declared 
against  all  attempts  to  distinguish  between  various  kinds  of 
worship  which  could  only  lead  pious  souls  astray  from  the 
one  worship  due  to  God  in  Christ.  Such  subtle  distinctions, 
says  Calvin,  as  latria,  doulia,  and  hyperdoulia  are  neither 
known  nor  present  to  the  minds  of  those  who  prostrate 
themselves  before  images  until  the  world  has  become  full  of 
idolatry  as  crude  and  plain  as  that  of  the  ancient  Egyptians, 
which  all  the  prophets  continuously  denounced ;  they  can 
only  mislead,  and  ought  to  be  discarded.  They  actually 
suggest  to  worshippers  to  pass  by  Jesus  Christ,  the  only 
Mediator,  and  betake  themselves  to  some  patron  who  has 
struck  their  fancy.  They  bring  it  about  that  the  Divine 
Offices  are  distributed  among  the  saints  as  if  they  had  been 
appointed  colleagues  to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  and  they 
are  made  to  do  His  work,  while  He  Himself  is  kept  in  the 
background  like  some  ordinary  person  in  a  crowd.  They 
are  responsible  for  the  fact  that  hymns  are  sung  in  public 
worship  in  which  the  saints  are  lauded  with  every  blessing 
just  as  if  they  were  colleagues  of  God.^ 

In  conformity  with  these  thoughts,  the  Confessions  of 
the  Eeformation  all  agree  in  reprobating  prayers  to  the 
saints.     The  Augsburg  Confession  says : 

"  The  Scripture  teacheth  not  to  invoke  saints,  nor  to  ask 
the  help  of  saints,  because  it  propoundeth  to  us  one  Christ, 
the  Mediator,  Propitiatory,  High  Priest,  and  Intercessor. 
This  Christ  is  to  be  invocated,  and  He  hath  promised  that 
He  will  hear  our  prayers,  and  liketh  this  worship,  to  wit, 
that  He  be  invocated  in  all  afflictions.  'If  any  man  sin, 
we  have  an  advocate  with  God,  Jesus  Christ  the  righteous ' 
(1  John  ill  V  2 

*  Oalvin,  Ojpffra  omnia.  (Amsterdam,  1667),  viii.  88,  89. 

•  Attgsburg  Confession,  Art  xxi. 


THE    PERSON    OF    CHRIST  477 

The  Second  Ilelvefcic  Confession,  in  its  fifth  chapter,  entitled, 
Regarding  the  adoration,  toorship,  and  invocation  of  God 
through  the  One  Mediator,  Jesus  Christ,  lays  down  the  rule 
that  prayer  is  to  he  through  Christ  alone,  and  the  saints 
and  relics  are  not  to  be  worshipped.  And  no  prayer- 
book  or  liturgy  in  any  branch  of  the  Keformed  Church 
contains  prayers  addressed  to  any  of  the  saints  or  to  the 
Blessed  Virgin. 

2.  The  Eeformers  insist  on  the  necessity  of  Christ  and 
of  Christ  alone  for  all  believers.  Their  Confessions  abound 
in  expressions  which  are  meant  to  magnify  the  Person  and 
Work  of  Christ,  and  to  show  that  He  fills  tlie  whole  field 
of  believing  thought  and  worship.  The  brief  Netherlands 
Confession  of  1566  has  no  less  than  three  separate  sections 
on  Christ  the  only  Mediator  and  Reconciler,  on  Christ  the  only 
Teacher,  and  on  Christ  the  only  High  Priest  and  Sacrifice} 
The  Heidelberg  or  Palatine  Catechism  calls  Christ  my  faith- 
ful Saviour,  and  says  that  we  can  call  ourselves  Christians 
"  because  by  faith  we  are  members  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
partakers  of  His  anointing,  so  that  we  both  confess  His 
Holy  Name  and  present  ourselves  unto  Him  a  lively 
offering  of  thanksgiving,  and  in  this  life  may  with  free 
conscience  fight  against  sin  and  Satan,  and  afterwards 
possess  with  Christ  an  everlasting  kingdom  over  all 
creatures."  The  Scots  Confession  abounds  in  phrases 
intended  to  honour  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  It  calls  Him 
Messiah,  Eternal  Wisdom,  Emmanuel,  our  Head,  our  Brother, 
our  Pastor  and  great  Bishop  of  our  souls,  the  Author  of 
Life,  the  Lamh  of  God,  the  Advocate  and  Mediator,  and 
the  Only  Hie  Priest.  All  the  Confessions  of  the  Churches 
of  the  Eeformation  contain  the  same  or  similar  expres- 
sions. The  liturgies  of  the  Churches  also  abound  in  similar 
terms  of  adoration. 

3.  The  Eeformers  declare  that  Clirist  is  the  only 
Eevealer  of  God.  "  We  would  never  recognise  the  Father's 
grace  and  mercy,"  says  Luther  in  his  Large  Catechism, 
**  were  it  not  for  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  Who  is  the  mirror 

•  Mtiller,  Die  Bekenntnisschri/ten  der  reformierten  Ktrcfu,  pp.  985  f, 


478  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

of  the  Father's  heart."  "  We  are  not  affrayed  to  cal  God 
our  Father,"  says  the  Scots  Confession,  "  not  sa  meikle 
because  He  has  created  us,  quhilk  we  have  in  common  with 
the  reprobate,  as  for  that  He  has  given  us  His  onely  Son." 
The  instructions  issued  by  the  Synod  which  met  at  Bern 
in  1532  are  very  emphatic  upon  this  thought,  as  may  be 
seen  from  the  headings  of  the  various  articles:  (Art.  2) 
That  the  whole  doctrine  is  the  unique  Christ  {Das  die  gantze 
leer  der  eynig  Christus  sye) ;  (Art.  3)  That  God  is  revealed 
to  the  people  in  Christ  alone ;  (Art.  5)  That  the  gracious 
God  is  perceived  through  Christ  alone  without  any  media- 
tion ;  (Art.  6)  A  Christian  sermon  is  entirely  about  and 
from  Christ.  It  is  said  under  the  third  article :  "  His 
Son  in  Whom  we  see  the  work  of  God  and  His  Fatherly 
heart  toward  us  .  .  .  which  is  not  the  case  where  the 
preacher  talks  much  about  God  in  the  heathen  manner, 
and  does  not  exhibit  the  same  God  in  the  face  of  Christ."  ^ 
The  Confessions  also  unite  in  declaring  that  the  gift  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  comes  from  Christ. 

4.  The  conception  that  Christ  filled  the  whole  sphere  of 
God,  which  was  for  the  Reformers  a  fundamental  and  experi- 
mental fact,  enabled  them  to  construct  a  spiritual  doctrine 
of  the  sacraments  which  they  opposed  to  that  held  in  the 
mediaeval  Church.  Of  course,  it  was  various  theories  about 
the  sacraments  which  caused  the  chief  differences  among  the 
Reformers  themselves;  but  apart  from  all  varying  ideas — 
consubstantiation,  ubiquity,  signs  exhibiting  and  signs  repre- 
senting— the  Reformers  united  on  the  thoughts  that  the 
efficacy  in  the  sacraments  depended  entirely  on  the  promises 
of  Christ  contained  in  His  word,  and  that  the  virtue  in  the 
sacraments  consisted  in  the  presence  of  Christ  to  the 
believing  communicant.  What  was  received  in  the  sacra- 
ments was  not  a  vague,  mysterious,  not  to  say  magical,  grace, 
but  Christ  Jesus  Himself.  He  gave  Himself  in  the  sacra- 
ments in  whatever  way  His  presence  might  be  explained. 

They  all  taught  that  the  efficacy  of  the  sacraments 
depends   upon   the   promise   of   Christ   contained   in   their 

'  Miiller,  Die  Bekenntnisschri/ten  der  reformierten  Kirche,  pp.  84  ff. 


THE   PERSON   OF   CHRIST  479 

/institution,  and  they  insisted  that  word  and  sacrament 
must  always  be  taken  together.  Thus  Luther  points  out 
in  the  Babylonish  CaiMvity  of  the  Church  that  one  objection 
to  the  Eoman  practice  is  that  the  recipients  "never  hear 
the  words  of  the  promise  which  are  secretly  mumbled  by 
the  priest,"  and  exhorts  his  readers  never  to  lose  sight  of 
the  all-important  connection  between  the  word  of  promise 
and  the  sacraments ;  and  in  his  Large  Catechism  he  declares 
that  the  sacraments  include  the  Word.  "  I  exhort  you,"  he 
says,  "  never  to  sunder  the  Word  and  the  water,  or  to  separ- 
ate them.  For  where  the  Word  is  withheld  we  have  only 
such  water  as  the  maid  uses  to  cook  with."  Non-Lutheran 
Confessions  are  equally  decided  on  the  necessity  of  connecting 
the  promise  and  the  words  of  Christ  with  the  sacraments. 
The  Thirty-nine  Articles  declare  that  the  sacraments  are 
effectual  because  of  "  Christ's  institution  and  promise."  The 
Heidelberg  or  Palatine  Catechism  (1563)  says  that  the 
sacraments  "  are  holy  and  visible  signs  ordained  of  God,  to 
the  end  that  He  might  thereby  the  more  fully  declare  and 
seal  unto  us  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Gospel." 

Similarly  the  Eeformers  unanimously  declared  that  the 
virtue  in  the  sacraments  consisted  in  no  mysterious  grace, 
but  in  the  fact  that  in  them  believing  partakers  met  and 
received  Christ  Himself.  In  the  articles  of  the  Bern  Synod 
(1532)  we  are  told  that  the  sacraments  are  mj^steries  of 
God,  "  through  which  from  without  Christ  is  proffered  to 
believers."  The  First  Helvetic  Confession  (1536)  says, 
concerning  the  Holy  Supper, "  we  hold  that  in  the  same  the 
Lord  truly  offers  His  Body  and  His  Blood,  that  is.  Himself, 
to  His  own."  The  Second  Helvetic  Confession  (1562) 
declares  that  "  the  Body  of  Christ  is  in  heaven  at  the  right 
hand  of  the  Father,"  and  enjoins  coumiunicants  "  to  lift  up 
their  hearts  and  noi  to  direct  them  downwards  to  the  bread. 
For  as  the  sun,  thougli  absent  from  us  in  the  heaven,  is  none 
the  less  efficaciously  present  ...  so  much  more  the  Sun  of 
righteousness  absent  from  us  in  the  heavens  in  His  Body,  is 
present  to  us  not  indeed  corporeally,  but  spiritually  by  a  life- 
giving  activity."     The  French  Confession  of  1557  says  that 


480  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

the  sacraments  are  pledges  and  seals,  and  adds, "  Yet  we  hold 
that  their  substance  and  truth  is  in  Jesus  Christ."  So  the 
Scots  Confession  of  1560  declares  that  "we  assuredlie 
beleeve  that  be  Baptisme  we  ar  ingrafted  in  Christ  Jesus  to 
be  made  partakers  of  His  justice,  be  quhilk  cur  sinnes  ar 
covered  and  remitted.  And  alswa,  that  in  the  Supper 
richtlie  used,  Christ  Jesus  is  so  joined  vith  us,  that  Hee 
becuramis  very  nurishment  and  fude  of  our  saules."  In  the 
Manner  of  the  Administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper  the 
Scottish  Keformation  Church  directed  the  minister  in  his 
exhortation  to  say  to  the  people:  "The  end  of  our 
coming  to  the  Lord's  Table  ...  is  to  seek  our  life  and  per- 
fection in  Jesus  Christ,  acknowledging  ourselves  at  the  same 
time  to  be  children  of  wrath  and  condemnation.  Let  us 
consider  then  that  this  sacrament  is  a  singular  medicine 
for  all  poor  sick  creatures,  a  comfortable  help  to  weak  souls, 
and  that  our  Lord  require th  no  other  worthiness  on  our  part, 
but  that  we  unfeignedly  acknowledge  our  naughtiness  and 
imperfection." 

Everywhere  in  prayer,  worship,  and  teaching  the  Ee- 
formers  see  Christ  filling  the  whole  sphere  of  God.  Jesus 
was  God  appearing  in  history  and  addressing  man. 

§  6.   The  Church. 

In  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  the  Church  of  Christ  stands 
forth  as  a.  felloivship  which  is  both  divine  and  human.  On 
the  side  of  the  divine  it  is  a  fellowship  with  Jesus,  its 
crucified,  risen,  and  ascended  Lord ;  on  the  human,  it  is 
a  fellowship  among  men  who  stand  in  the  same  relation  to 
Jesua  This  fellowship  with  Jesus  and  with  the  brethren  is 
the  secret  of  the  Church — wliat  expresses  it,  what  makes  it 
different  from  all  other  fellowships.  Every  other  character- 
istic which  belongs  to  it  must  be  coloured  by  this  thought  of 
a  double  fellowship.  It  is  the  double  relation  which  makes 
it  difficult  to  construct  a  conception  of  the  Church.  It  is 
easy  to  feel  it  as  an  experience,  but  it  has  always  been  found 
hard  to  express  it  in  propositions. 


THE   CHURCH  481 

It  does  not  require  much  elaborate  thinking  to  construct 
a  theory  of  the  Church  which  will  be  true  to  all  that  is  said 
about  the  fellowship  on  its  divine  side  ;  nor  is  it  very  difficult 
to  think  of  a  great  visible  and  historical  organisation  which 
in  some  external  aspects  represents  the  Christian  fellow- 
ship, provided  the  hidden  union  with  Christ,  so  prominent 
in  St.  Paul's  descriptions,  be  either  entirc]y  neglected  or 
explained  in  external  and  material  ways.  The  difficulty 
arises  when  both  the  divine  and  the  human  sides  of  the 
fellowship  are  persistently  and  earnestly  kept  in  view. 

It  is  always  hard  to  explain  the  unseen  by  the  seen, 
the  eternal  by  the  temporal,  and  the  divine  by  the  human ; 
and  the  task  is  almost  greater  than  usual  when  the  union  of 
these  two  elements  in  the  Church  of  Christ  is  the  theme  of 
discussion.  It  need  not  surprise  us,  therefore,  that  all  down 
through  the  Middle  Ages  there  appear,  not  one,  but  two 
conceptions  of  the  Christian  Church  which  never  harmonised. 
On  the  one  side,  the  Church  was  thought  of  as  a  fellowship 
of  God  with  man,  depending  on  the  inscrutable  purpose  of 
God,  and  independent  of  all  visible  outward  organisation  ;  on 
the  other,  it  was  a  great  society  which  existed  in  the  world 
of  history,  and  was  held  together  by  visible  political  ties 
like  other  societies.  Augustine  had  both  conceptions,  and 
the  dialectical  skill  of  the  great  theologian  of  the  West  was 
unable  to  fuse  them  into  one  harmonious  whole. 

These  two  separate,  almost  mutually  exclusive,  ideas 
of  what  the  Church  of  Christ  was,  lived  side  by  side 
during  the  Middle  Ages  in  the  same  unconnected  fashion. 
The  former,  the  spiritual  Church  with  its  real  but  unseen 
fellowship  with  Christ,  was  the  pre-eminently  religious 
thought.  It  was  the  ground  on  which  the  most  con- 
spicuous mediaeval  piety  rested.  It  was  the  garden  in 
which  bloomed  the  flowers  of  mediaeval  mystical  devotion. 
The  latter  was  built  up  by  the  juristic  dialectic  of  Eoman 
canonists  into  the  conception  that  the  Churcli  was  a  visible 
hierarchical  State  having  a  strictly  monarchical  constitu- 
tion— its  king  being  the  Bishop  of  Kome,  who  was  the 
visible  representative  of  Christ.  This  conception  became 
31* 


482  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

almost  purely  political.  It  was  the  active  force  in  all 
ecclesiastical  struggles  with  princes  and  peoples,  with 
Eeformers,  and  with  so-called  heretics  and  schismatics.  It 
reduced  the  Church  to  the  level  of  the  State,  and  contained 
little  to  stimulate  to  piety  or  to  holy  living. 

The  labours  of  the  great  Schoolmen  of  the  thirteenth 
century  did  try  to  transform  this  political  Church  into 
what  might  represent  the  double  fellowship  with  Christ 
and  with  fellow-believers  which  is  so  prominent  a  thought 
in  the  New  Testament.  They  did  so  by  attempting  to 
show  that  the  great  political  Church  was  an  enclosure 
containing  certain  indefinite  mysterious  powers  of  redemp- 
tion which  saved  men  who  wilHngly  placed  themselves 
within  the  sphere  of  their  operation.  They  maintained 
that  the  core  of  the  hierarchical  constitution  of  the 
Church  was  the  priesthood,  and  that  this  priesthood  was 
a  species  of  plastic  medium  through  which,  and  through 
which  alone,  God  worked  in  dispensing,  by  means  of  the 
sacraments  entrusted  to  the  priesthood.  His  saving  grace. 
It  may  be  questioned  whether  the  thought  of  the  Church 
as  an  institution,  possessing  within  itself  certain  mysterious 
redemptive  powers  which  are  to  be  found  nowhere  else, 
was  ever  thoroughly  harmonised  with  that  which  re- 
garded it  as  a  mass  of  legal  statutes  embodied  in  canon 
law  and  dominated  by  papal  absolutism.  The  two  con- 
ceptions remained  distinct,  mutually  aiding  each  other, 
but  never  exactly  coalescing.  Thus  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury no  less  than  three  separate  ideas  of  the  Church  of 
Christ  were  present  to  fill  the  minds  and  imaginations  of 
men ;  but  the  dominant  idea  for  the  practical  religious 
life  was  certainly  that  which  represented  the  Church 
as  an  institution  which,  because  it  possessed  the  priest- 
hood, was  the  society  within  which  salvation  was  to  be 
found. 

Luther  had  enjoyed  to  the  full  the  benefits  of  this 
society,  and  had  with  ardour  and  earnestness  sought  to 
make  use  of  all  its  redemptive  powers.  He  had  felt, 
simply  because  he  was  so  honest  with  himself,  that  it  had 


THE   CHURCH  483 

not  made  him  a  real  Christian,  and  that  its  mysterious 
powers  had  worked  on  him  in  vain.  His  living  Christian 
experience  made  him  know  and  feel  that  whatever  the 
Church  of  Christ  was,  it  was  not  a  society  within  which 
priests  exercised  their  secret  science  of  redemption.  It 
was  and  must  be  a  fellowship  of  holy  and  Christlike 
people ;  but  he  felt  it  very  difficult  to  express  liis  experi- 
ence in  phrases  that  could  satisfy  him.  It  was  hard  to 
get  rid  of  thoughts  which  he  had  cherished  from  childhood, 
and  none  of  these  inherited  behefs  had  more  power  over 
him  than  the  idea  that  the  Church,  however  described, 
was  the  Pope's  House  in  which  the  Bishop  of  Kome  ruled, 
and  ought  to  rule,  as  house-father.  It  is  interesting  to 
study  by  what  devious  paths  he  arrived  at  a  clear  view  of 
what  the  Church  of  Christ  really  is ;  ^  to  notice  how  shreds 
of  the  old  opinions  which  had  lain  dormant  in  his  mind 
every  now  and  then  start  afresh  into  life ;  and  how,  while 
he  had  learnt  to  know  the  uselessness  of  many  institutions 
of  the  mediaeval  Church,  he  could  not  easily  divest  his 
mind  of  the  thought  that  they  naturally  belonged  to  a 
Church  Visible.  Monastic  vows,  the  celibacy  of  the 
clergy,  fasting,  the  hierarchy,  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope, 
the  power  of  excommunication  with  all  its  dreaded  con- 
sequences, were  all  the  natural  accompaniments  of  a 
Visible  Church  according  to  mediaeval  ideas,  and  Luther 
relinquished  them  with  difficulty.  From  the  first,  Augus- 
tine's thought  of  the  Church,  which  consists  of  the 
elect,  helped  him ;  he  found  that  Huss  held  the  same 
idea,  and  he  wrote  to  a  friend  that  "  we  have  been 
all  Hussites  without  knowing  it."^  But  while  Luther 
and  all  the  Eeformers  held  strongly  by  this  conception  of 
Augustine,  it  was  not  of  very  much  service  in  determining 
the  conception  of  the  Visible  Church  which  was  the  more 
important  practically ;  and  although  the  definition  of  the 
Catholic    Church    Invisible  has    found  its  way  into  most 

*  Luther's  gradual  progress  towards  bis  final  view  of  the  Chuich  is  traced 
minutely  by  Loofs,  Leitfaden,  pp.  359  ff. 

'  Enders,  Dr,  Martin  Luthcrs  Brie/wechsel,  n.  345. 


484  RELIGIOUS    PRINCIPLES 

Protestant  Confessions,  and  has  been  used  by  ProtesDants 
polemically,  it  has  always  remained  something  of  a  back- 
ground, making  clearer  the  conception  of  the  Church  in 
general,  but  has  been  of  little  service  in  giving  clear 
views  of  what  the  Church  Visible  is.  From  the  very  first, 
however,  Luther  saw  in  a  certain  indefinite  way  that  there 
was  a  real  connection  between  the  conception  of  the  Visible 
Church  and  the  proclamation  of  the  Word  of  God — a 
thought  which  was  destined  to  grow  more  and  more  definite 
till  it  completely  possessed  him.  As  early  as  October  1518, 
he  could  inform  Cajetan  that  the  Pope  must  be  under  the 
rule  of  the  Word  of  God  and  not  superior  to  it.^  His 
discovery  that  the  communion  of  the  saints  {communio 
sanctorum)  was  not  necessarily  a  hierarchy  (ecclesia  prce- 
latorum)^  was  made  soon  afterwards.  After  the  Leipzig 
Disputation  his  views  became  clearer,  and  by  1520  they 
stood  revealed  in  the  three  great  Keformation  treatises. 

Luther's  doctrine  of  the  Church  is  extremely  simple. 
The  Church  is,  as  the  Creed  defines  it  to  be,  the  Communion 
of  the  Saints,  which  has  come  into  existence  through  the 
proclamation  of  the  Word  of  God  heard  and  received  by 
faith.  He  simplified  this  fundamental  Christian  conception 
in  a  wonderful  way.  The  Church  rests  on  the  sure  and 
stable  foundation  of  the  Word  of  God;  and  this  Word  of 
God  is  not  a  weary  round  of  statutes  issued  blasphemously 
by  the  Bishops  of  Eome  in  God's  name.  It  is  not  the 
invitations  of  a  priesthood  to  come  and  share  mysterious  and 
indefinite  powers  of  salvation  given  to  them  in  their  com- 
mand over  the  sacraments.  It  is  not  a  lengthy  doctrinal 
system  constructed  out  of  detached  texts  of  Holy  Scripture 
by  the  application  of  a  fourfold  sense  used  under  the  guid- 
ance of  a  dogmatic  tradition  or  a  rule  of  faith.  It  is  the 
substance  of  the  Scriptures.  It  is  the  "gospel  according  to 
a  pure  understanding."  It  is  the  "  promises  of  God  " ;  "  the 
testimony  of  Jesus,  Who  is  the  Saviour  of  souls'*;  it  is 
the  "  consolations  offered  in  Christ."     It  is,  as  Calvin  said, 

*  Enders,  Dr.  Martin  Luthers  Briefwechsd,  i.  263. 

•  Luther's  Works  (Weimar  edition^,  i.  190. 


THE    CHURCH  485 

"  the  spiritiml  gate  whereby  we  enter  into  God's  heavenly 
kingdom  "  ;  the  "  mirror  in  which  faith  beliolds  God."  It 
is,  according  to  the  Westminster  Confession,  the  sum  of 
God's  commands,  threatenings,  promises,  and,  above  all,  the 
offer  of  Christ  Jesus.  All  these  things  are  apprehended 
by  faith.  The  Ch\irch  comes  into  existence  by  faith 
responding  to  the  proclamation  of  the  Word  of  God.  This 
is  the  sure  and  stable  thing  upon  which  the  Church  of 
Christ  is  founded. 

The  Church  of  Christ,  therefore,  is  a  body  of  which  the 
Spirit  of  Jesus  is  the  soul.  It  is  a  company  of  Christ- 
like men  and  women,  whom  the  Holy  Spirit  has  called, 
enlightened,  and  sanctified  through  the  preaching  of  the 
word ;  who  are  encouraged  to  look  forward  to  a  glorious 
future  prepared  for  the  people  of  God ;  and  who,  mean- 
iwhile,  manifest  their  faith  in  all  manner  of  loving  services 
done  to  their  fellow-believers 

The  Church  is  therefore  in  some  sense  invisible.  Its 
secret  is  its  hidden  fellowship  with  Jesus.  Its  roots 
penetrate  the  unseen,  and  draw  from  thence  the  nourish- 
ment needed  to  sustain  its  life.  But  it  is  a  visible  society, 
and  can  be  seen  wherever  the  Word  of  God  is  faithfully 
proclaimed,  and  wherever  faitli  is  manifested  in  testimony 
and  in  bringing  forth  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit. 

This  is  the  essential  mode  of*  describing  the  Church 
which  has  found  place  in  the  Eeformation  creeds.  Some 
vary  in  the  ways  in  which  they  express  the  thought ;  some 
do  not  sufficiently  distinguish,  in  words  at  least,  between 
what  the  Church  is  and  what  it  has,  between  what  makes 
its  being  and  what  is  included  in  its  well-being.  But  in  all 
there  are  the  two  thoughts  that  the  Church  is  made  visible 
by  the  two  fundamental  things — the  proclamation  of  the 
word  and  the  manifestation  of  faith. 

This  mode  of  describing  the  Church  of  Christ  defines  it 
by  that  element  which  separates  it  from  all  other  forms  of 
human  association — its  special  relation  to  the  divine ;  and 
it  is  shown  to  be  visible  at  the  place  where  that  divine 
element   can   and    does    manifest    itself.      It    defines    the 


486  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

Church  by  its  most  essential  element,  and  sets  aside  all 
that  is  accidental.  It  concerns  itself  with  what  the  Church 
is,  and  does  not  include  what  the  Church  has.  It  therefore 
provides  room  for  all  things  which  belong  to  the  well- 
being  of  the  Church — only  it  relegates  them  to  their 
proper  place.^ 

If  the  proclamation  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  mani- 
festation of  the  faith  which  answers,  be  the  essence  of  the 
Church,  all  that  tends  to  aid  both  is  to  be  included  in  the 
thought.  There  must  be  a  ministry  of  some  sort  in  word 
and  sacrament  instituted  within  the  Church  of  Christ  in 
order  to  lead  the  individual  to  faith.  God  has  created  this 
ministry,  and  all  the  Eeformed  Churches  were  careful  to 
declare  that  no  one  should  seek  entrance  into  office  unless 
he  was  assured  that  he  had  been  called  of  God  thereto; 
and  as  his  function  is  to  be  a  minister  of  the  Church 
and  a  servant  of  the  faithful,  no  one  "should  publicly 
teach  or  administer  the  sacraments  unless  he  be  duly 
called  (nisi  rite  vocatus)."  Such  a  ministry  has  its  field 
simply  in  ministering  the  means  of  grace.  "  The  Church 
of  Christ,"  says  Luther,  "  requires  an  honest  ministry 
diligently  and  loyally  instructed  in  the  holy  Word  of  God 
after  a  pure  Christian  understanding,  and  without  the 
addition  of  any  false  traditions.  In  and  through  such  a 
ministry  it  will  be  made  plain  what  are  Christ  and  His 
Evangel,  how  to  attain  to  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  the 
properties  and  power  of  the  keys  in  the  Church." 

All  this  is  matter  of  administration.  Some  societies  of 
believers  may  have  different  ideas  about  the  precise  form 
that  this  ministry  ought  to  take;  but  such  differences, 
while  they  may  lead  to  separate  administratiocs,  do  not 
imply  any  separation  from  the  one  Catholic  Church  of 
Christ  to  which  they  all  belong.  However  outwardly  they 
differ,  all  retain  the  essential  things — the  preaching  and 
teaching  of  the  Word  of  God  and  the  due  administration  of 
the  sacraments.  Some  may  prefer  to  set  forth  a  creed 
of  one  kind  and  others  may  prefer  another.     The  French, 

*  LiUher's  Works  (Erlangen  edition),  xii.  249. 


THE   CHURCH  487 

the  Scottish,  and  the  Dutch  Churches  had  all  their  own 
creeds,  and  all  believed  each  other  to  be  parts  of  tlie  same 
One  Catholic  Church  of  Christ. 

"  When  we  affirm,"  says  Calvin,  "  the  pure  ministry  of 
the  Word,  and  pure  order  in  the  celebration  of  the  Sacra- 
meats,  to  be  a  sufficient  pledge  and  earnest  that  we  may 
safely  embrace  the  society  in  which  both  these  are  found 
as  a  true  Church,  we  carry  the  observation  to  this  point,  that 
such  a  society  should  never  be  rejected  as  long  as  it  con- 
tinues in  these  things,  although  it  may  be  chargeable  in 
other  respects  with  many  errors."  ^ 

Within  this  Christian  fellowship,  which  is  the  Church 
of  Christ,  the  sense  by  which  we  see  God  is  awakened  and 
our  faith  is  nourished  and  quickened.  The  Word  of  God 
speaks  to  us  not  merely  in  the  public  worship  of  the  faith- 
ful, but  in  and  through  the  lives  of  the  brethren ;  their 
deeds  act  on  us  as  the  simple  stories  of  experience  and 
providence  which  the  Scriptures  contain.  God's  Word 
speaks  to  us  in  a  thousand  ways  in  the  lives  and  sympathies 
of  the  brethren.  The  Christian  "  receives  the  revelation  of 
God  in  the  living  relationships  of  the  Christian  brotherhood, 
and  its  essential  contents  are  that  personal  life  of  Jesus 
which  is  visible  in  the  gospel  and  which  is  expounded  by 
the  lives  of  the  redeemed."  ^ 

"  The  Christian  Church,"  says  Luther,  "  keeps  all  words 
of  God  in  its  heart,  and  turns  them  round  and  round,  and 
keeps  their  connection  with  one  another  and  with  Scripture  I 
Therefore,  anyone  who  is  to  find  Christ  must  first  find  the 
Church.  How  could  anyone  know  where  Christ  is  and 
faith  in  Him  is,  unless  he  knew  where  His  believers  are  ? 
Whoever  wishes  to  know  something  about  Christ  must  not 
trust  to  himself,  nor  by  the  help  of  his  own  reason  build  a 
bridge  of  his  own  to  heaven,  but  must  go  to  the  Church, 
must  visit  it  and  make  inquiry.  Now  the  Church  is  not 
wood  and  stone,  but  the  company  of  people  who  believe 
In  Christ.  With  these  he  must  unite  and  see  how  they 
believe,  live,  and  teach,  who .  assuredly  have  Christ  among 

*  Calvin,  Imtitutio,  iv.  i.  12. 

•  Herrmann,  Communion  with  God,  p.  149. 


488  RELIGIOUS   PRINCIPLES 

them.     For  outside  the  Christian  Church  there  is  no  truth 
no  Christ,  no  blessedness."  ^ 

For  these  reasons  the  Church  deserves  to  be  called,  and  is, 
the  Mother  of  all  Christians. 

*  Luther'8  Worlca  (2nd  Erlangen  edition),  x.  1631 


A^W 


CHRONOLOGICAL  SUMMARY 


or 


THE  HISTORY   OF  THE  REFORMATION 


CHRONOLOGICAL 


Contemporary  EventB. 


1493-1519.— Jan.  12, 
Mtiximiliau  I.  Em- 
peror. At  his  death 
the  Elector  Frederick 
the  Wise  of  Sa.\oiiy 
(1480-1525),  viceroy. 

1499  -  1535.  —  Elector 
•loaohini  i.  (Nestor) 
of  Brandeuburg. 

1500  -  1539.  —  Duke 
George  of  Saxony. 

1509  -  1547.  —  Henry 
VIII.  of  England. 

1515-1547. — ^Francis  I,. 
of  France. 

1518-1567.— Philip  the 
Magnanimous  of 
Hesse  (6.  1504). 


1519^  Trr  June,  Charles 
V.  {since  1516  King 
of  Spain)  —  1556, 
Aug.  27,  Emperor  of 
(Jermany  [d.  1558). 

1519-15a6..-^SuliiB»n  I. 
Sultan. 


Lutheran  Church. 


ISIL— Oct.  31,  Martin  Lutijer  [h. 
\m^  ISTov.  ia,'at  Eislehen  ;  1497, 
aTTTatin  School  at  Magdeburg ; 
1498,  at  Eisenach  (Frau  Cotta,  d. 
1511);  1501,  at  Erfurt;  1505, 
Master  of  Arts  ;  July  17,  entered 
the  Aug-ustinian  Cloister  at  Er- 
furt ;  1508,  Professor  at  Witten- 
berg ;  1511,  at  Rome  ;  1512,  Oct. 
19,  Dr.  of  Theology]  nailed  95 
theses  against  the  abuse  of  in- 
dulgences on  the  door  of  the 
Castle  Church  at  Wittenberg. 
Counter  -  theses  of  John  Tetzel, 
composed  by  Conrad  Wlmpina. 

1518. — Silvester  Mazzolini  of  Prierio: 
Dialogus  in  prtesiimpiuosas  M. 
L.  conclusiones  de  potestate  Papce ; 
Luther's  Resp.  ad  Silv.  Prier. 

April  26,  Luther  at  Heidelberg 
Disputation. 

Aug. :  Cited  to  appear  at  Rome. 

Aug.  25,  Melanchthon  at  Wit- 
tenberg. 

Oct.  12-15,  Luther  at  Augsburg 
before  Card.  Thomas  Vio  de 
Gaeta ;  appeals  a  papa  male  in- 
formato  ad  melius  infonnandum. 

Nov.  :  Luther,  On  the  Sacra- 
ment of  Penance. 

1519. — Jan.:  Luther's  interview 
with  Charles  of  Miltitz,  papal 
chamberlain  at  Altenburg ;  Truce. 
June  27-July  8,  Disputation 
AT  Leipzig  :  (1)  bet\veennE(^Faud 
Caflstadt,~^on  the  Doctrine  of  Free 
Will ;  and  (2)  between  Eck  and 
Luther,  Deprimatu  Papce. 


Reformed  Church. 


UlRICH       ZwINQLI  :       ft. 
1^,  Jan.  1,  at  Wild- 

liaus,  in  Canton  of  St. 
Gallen ;  scholar  of 
Henry  Wolllin  (Lupu- 
lus)  at  Berne ;  of 
Thomas  Wytteiibach 
at  Basel  ;  1499,  sturleut 
of  Joachim  Vadianus 
at  Vienna;  1506,  M.  A.; 
1506  - 16,  pastor  at 
Glarus ;  1516  -  18, 
preacher  at  St.  Mary's, 
Eiusiedeln. 


1518. —  Zwingli  against 
''tlTe  indulgence  preach- 
ed by  Beruardin  Samp- 
son (Guardian  of  the 
Franciscan  Cloister  at 
Milan). 

Dec. :  Zwingli  pastor 
in  the  Minster  «| 
Zurich. 


1519.— Jan.  1,  Zwingli 
delivers  his  first  ser- 
mon in  Zurich ;  sermons 
on  St.  Matthew's  Gos- 
pel, Acts,  and  the 
Pauline  Epistles  ;  Re- 
formation serniona, 
pointing  out   a   cleaf 


48i» 


SUMMARY 


Revolutionary  Movements. 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


Protestant  Theology. 


1513,  Mar.  11-1521,  Dec.  1. 
— Leo  X. 

1517.— The  Lateran  Council 
grant  to  the  Pope  the 
tithes  of  all  church  pro- 
perty. 

Indulgence  (the  fifth  be- 
tween 1500  and  1517)  for 
the  building  of  St.  Peter's 
and  for  the  Pope's  private 
needs. 

Three  indulgence  com- 
missions granted  for  Ger- 
many, one  farmed  by 
Elector  Archbishop  of 
Mainz  (consec.  1514),  the 
Doiuinican  John  Tetzel  (d. 
1519),  his  commissioner. 

Thomas  Vio  de  Gaeta 
(Card.  Cajetan):  "The 
Catholic  Church  is  the 
bond-slave  of  the  Pope  "  ; 
asserts  popal  infallibility 
in  the  widest  sense. 


1519. — ^The  Cortes  of  Aragon 
ask  three  Briefs  (never  sent) 
from  Leo  x.  to  restrain 
the  Inquisition.  Similarly 
fruitless  applications  made 
by  the  Estates  of  Aragon, 
Castile,  and  Catalonia  to 
Charles  v.  in  1616. 


Philip  Melanchthon  (h.  1197, 
Feb.  16,  at  Bretten  ;  1509-12, 
at  Heidelberg;  1512-14,  at 
Tlibingen  ;  1514,  M.A.,  1514- 
18,  teaches  in  Tubingen  ;  1518, 
Prof,  of  Greek  at  Witten- 
berg ;  Aug.  29,  Introductory 
Lecture,  De  corrigendis 
adolescentice  studiis ;  1519, 
Sept.  19,  Bach,  of  Theo- 
logy; d.  1560,  April  19). 
Loci  communes  rerum  Theo- 
log-lcarum,  seu  bypotypcses 
Theologicae.  1521  ;  three  edi- 
tions in  1521  ;  edition  of  1525 
modifies  absolute  predestina- 
tion ;  edition  of  1535  lecon- 
stiiuts  his  theology ;  edition 
of  1543,  Synergism. 


ZwiNOU :  Commmiarius  de  vera 

et  falsa  religione,  1525  ;  Fidei 
ratio  ad  Caruluvi  Ivipera- 
torem,  1530,  July  3  ;  Servmnis 
de  provide  lit  ia  Dei  Anamnenia. 
1530 ;  Christianas  Fidei  ex- 
positiOy  1531. 


492 


CHRONOLOGICAL    SUMMARY 


Contemporary  Events. 


Lutheran  Church. 


Reformed  Church. 


1519-1521.  —Fernando 
Cortez  discovers  and 
oouquers  Mexico. 


1521.  —  Magellan  sails 
round  the  world. 


1521-28.  — First  war 
between  Charles  V. 
and  Francis  I. 

1525.— Battle  of  Pavia. 

1526.— Peace  of  Madrid. 


The  controversy  is  no  longer 
one  about  a  point  in  scholasti? 
theology  ;  it  involves  the  whole 
round  of  eccle.sia^tical  principles. 

Break  with  the  Roman  Chris- 
tendom. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Priesthood 
of  all  Believers. 

Christian  freedom  and  the  right 
of  private  judgment. 

Lutlier's  sermons  on  the  Sacra- 
ments of  Repentance  and  Baptism, 
and  on  Excommunication. 

Demand  lor  the  celebration  of 
the  Lord's  Supper  under  both 
kinds. 


152(U- April :  Ulrich  v.  Hntten  (6. 
1488,  April  21  ;  d.  1523,  Aug.  29)  ; 
Dialogue :  Vadiscus  or  the  Roman 
Trinity;  June  15,  Bull  of  Excom- 
munication against  41  propositions 
of  Luther  ;  60  days  for  recanta- 
tion ;  Aug.:  Luther,  "To  the 
Christian  Nobles  of  the  German 
Nation,  on  the  Bettering  of  the 
Christian  Estate  "  ;  Oct. :  De  Gap- 
timtate  Ecclea.  Baby  Ionic. ;  t>e 
libertate  Christiana  (of  the  freedom 
of  a  Christian  man);  Dec.  10, 
Papal  Bull  burnt. 


1521.— April  17, 18,  Luther  at  the 
Diet  of  Worms  ;  April  26,  leaves 
Worms  ;  at  the  Wartbiirg,  May4- 
Mar.  3,  1522.  [In  Dec.  begins 
translation  of  N.T. ;  Tracts :  On 
penance,  Against  Private  2 f asses, 
Against  Clerical  and  Cloister 
Vows,  TJie  Uerman  Postille.] 

May  26,  Edict  of  Worms  falsely 
antedated  May  8. 

May  28,  Imperial  decree  against 
Luther. 

June :  Carlstadt  agauist  celi- 
bacy. 

Oct. :   The  Mass  abolished  at 


distinction  between 
Biblical  and  Romanist 
Christianity ;  Humanist 
study  of  Scripture 
(Pauline  Epistles). 


In  Frawcb,  spread  and 

prea'hing  of  Reformed 
doi.itrines  thjough 

William  Briconnet, 
Bishop  of  Meaux  from 
ir.21.  With  him  Le 
Fevre  and  Farel. 

1521. — Cornelius  Hoen, 
Dutch  jurist,  writes 
De  Eucharist  la  (The 
Lord's  Supper  jnirely 
symbolical) ;  the  doc- 
trine brought  to  Wit- 
tenberg and  Zurich  bj 


CHRONOLOGICAL   SUMMARY 


493 


Revolutionary  Movements. 


1521.— The    (Zwickau) 

Prophets  in  Witteu- 
berg,  Nicholas  Storch, 
Marcus  Thoiiiae  Stiib- 
ner ;  Martin  Cellarius. 

Andrew  Bocleii stein  of 
Carlstadt:  1504,  Prof, 
in  Wittenberg  ;  1520, 
at  Copenhagen  ;  1522, 
riots  about  images 
and  vestments  ;  1523- 
24,  in  Orlamiinde ; 
then  excommunicated 
in  South  Germany, 
East  I'riesland,  Swit- 
zerland ;  d,  Basel, 
1541. 


Roman  Oatholio  Church. 


Romanist  Theologians  in  the 
first  peHod  of  the  Refor- 
mation. 

John  Eck,  Prof,  of  Theology 
at  Ingolstadt  since  1510  ; 
h.  1486,  in  the  Swabian 
village  of  Eck ;  d.  1543. 


Jerome Emser,  court  preacher 
to  Duke  George  of  Saxony ; 
d.  1527. 


John  Cochlaeus  (Dobeneck), 
Dean  at  Frankfort-on- 
the-Maine,  Canonicus  in 
Mainz  and  Breslau ;  d. 
1552 ;  Ooviinentaria  de 
actis  etscriptis  M.  Lutheri 
(1617-46),  1549;  His- 
torice  Hussitarum. 

John  Faber,  1618,  Vicar- 
General     at     Constance ; 

1529,  Provost    at    Ofen ; 

1530,  Bishop  of  Vienna ;  d. 
1561 ;  1523,  Malleus  hmre- 
ticorum. 

1521. — Henry  vni.  of  Eng- 
land: Asserlatiovii.  Sacra- 
vientorum  contra  Lutherum 
(Defender  of  the  Faith). 

April  16,  Decree  of  the 

Sorbonne  condemning 
Luther's  doctrines. 

May  8,  Edict  of  Charles 
V.  (founded  on  Edict  of 
Worms)  against  the  spread 
of  Reformation  doctrines 
in  the  Netherlands.  [1522, 
the  Augustinian  cloister 
at  Antwerp  dosed  for 
heresy.J 


Protestant  Theology. 


(a)  Lutheran  Theologians, 

George  Spalatin :  6.  1484  at 
Spalt,  in  the  bishopric  at 
Eichstjidt ;  1514,  court  chap- 
lain to  Frederick  the  Wise ; 
1525,  Superintendent  at  Alten- 
burg;  d,  1545. 

Justus  Jonas :  6.  1493,  at  Nord- 
hausen ;  1521,  Provost  and 
Prof,  at  Wittenberg  ;  1541-46, 
at  Halle  ;  1551,  Superintend- 
ent at  Eisfeld  ;  d.  1555. 

Nicholas  of  Amsdorf:  6.  1483; 
since  1504  at  Wittenberg; 
1524,  at  Magdeburg ;  1528,  at 
Goslar;  1542-46,  Bishop  of 
Naumburg;  after  1550,  at 
Eisenach ;  d.  1565. 

John  Bugenhagen:  h.  1485; 
from  1521  in  Wittenberg ; 
1522,  pastor ;  1536,  General 
Superintendent  there. 

Casper  Cruciger :  1528-48,  when 
he  died,  Prof,  at  Wittenberg. 

Fred.  Myconius,  Franciscan  at 
Annaberg,  then  pa.stor  in 
Weimar ;  1524,  Court  preacher 
at  Gotha ;  d.  1546. 

Paul  Speratue:  1521,  at  Vienna, 

then  at  Iglau  ;  1523,  at  Witten- 
berg (1524,  "Salvation  has 
come  to  us  ") ;  1524,  in  Konigs- 
berg ;  1529-51,  when  he  died. 
Bishop  of  Pomerania  in  Marien- 
werder, 

John  Brenz,  b.  1499:  1520, 
Romanist  preacher  at  Heidel- 
berg ;  1522  -  46,  Lutheran 
preacher  at  Hall  in  Swabia; 
from  1563,  provost  at  Stutt- 
gart ;  d,  1570,  Sept.  IL 


494 


CHRONOLOGICAL   SUMMARY 


OoDtemporary  Events. 


1523-33.— Frederick  i. 
of  Denmark. 

1523-60.  —  Gustayus 
Vaaa  of  Sweden. 


Lutheran  Church. 


Wittenberg  by  the  Augustinian 
monks  (Gabriel  Didymus). 

Dec. :  Carlstadt's  innovations. 

Dec.  25,  Lord's  Supper  in  both 
kinds. 

Dec.  27,  The  Prophets  in  Wit- 
tenberg. 

1522.— Feb. :  Riots  in  Wittenberg 
against  images  and  pictures. 

Mar.  7,  Lulher  back  in  \yitteu- 
berg^ 

"Mar.  9-16,  Sermons  against  fan- 
aticism. 

July:  Contra  Henricum  regem 
Anglice, 

Sept.:  Translation  of  N.T. 
finished  (whole  Bible  in  1534). 

Dec.  :  Diet  at  Niirnbcrg  ;  The 
Hundred  Grievances  of  the  Ger- 
man Estates,  in  answer  to  Hadrian 
VI. 's  Brief  of  Nov.  25. 

1522-23. —The  Reformation  con- 
quers in  Poraerania,  Livonia,  Sil- 
e~sia,  Prussia,  Mecklenburg ;  in 
East  Friesl.ind  from  1519;  1523, 
in  Frankfort  -  on  -  the  -  Maine,  in 
Hall  in  Swabia  ;  1524,  Ulm,  Stras- 
burg,  Bremen,  NUrnberg. 

1523. —July  1,  Henry  Voes  and 
John  Esih  (Augustinians),  burnt 
at  Brussels;  the  first  martyrs. 

Gustavus  Vasa  establishes  the 
Reformation  in  Sweden  (Olaf  and 
Lorenz  Petersen,  Lorenz  Ander- 
sen.). 

May  7,  Sickingen  slain  ;  revolt 
of  nobles  quelled  by  the  princes. 

Luther :  Of  the  Order  of  Public 
Worship;  Dec:  Formula  Missce 
(Lord's  Supper  svh  utraque). 

1^2L— The  Ji/rst  German  Hymn- 
Bogh 

"June-May  1525,  The  Peasants' 
WAitt  peasants  slaughtered  at 
Frankenhauseiu 


Reformed  Church. 


John  Rhodius,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Brother 
House  at  Utrecht. 


1522.— April  16,  Zwingli: 
Von  Erkiesen  xmd 
Fryheit  der  Spy  sen ; 
Aug. :  ApoJogeticus 
A  rcheteles,  to  the 
Bishop  of  Constance. 

The  Zwinglian  theo- 
logy gradually  be- 
comes the  more  power- 
ful in  the  Netherlands. 


1523.— Jan.  29,  Disputa- 
tion in  Zurich  between 
Zwingli  and  John 
Faber,  the  Bishop's 
Vicar-General ;  Zwiug- 
li's  67  theses. 

Oct.  26,  Disputation 
at  Zurich  about  image- 
worship  and  the  Mass. 

Nov.  17,  Instruction 
of  Zurich  Council  to 
pastors  and  preachers. 


1^ 


— Tliorough  reform 
or  chui'ch  at  Zurich ; 
pictures  taken  down  ; 
Friars'  convents  closed. 
Victory  of  the  Re- 
formation in  Berne 
(Berchtholdt  Haller, 
Nic.  Manuel),  Ap- 
penzell,  Solothurn ; 
Romanist  League  of 
the  Forest  Cantons  at 
Lucerne. 


CHRONOLOCICAL   SUMMAPwY 


495 


Revolutionary  Movements. 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


Protestant  Theologfy. 


1523.— Conrad  Grebel, 
Felix  Manz,  and 
Stiimpf  in  Zurich, 
against  Zwingli's 

State  Church. 


1524. — Disturbances  in 
Stockholm ;  Melchior 
Hoflfmann. 


1525.— Thomas  Miinzer 
at  Miihlhausen  ;  exe- 
cute.! xMay  1525. 
Tract :    Wider  das 

ge  'dinse  sanftlehende 
Fleisrh  zv,  Witten- 
berg, 1522. 

Jan. :  Rise  of  the 
Anabaptists ;  Jiirg 
Blaurock,  a  monk 
frum  Chur. 


1522-23.— Sept.  14,  Pope 
Hadrian  vi.  (tutor  to 
Charles  v..  Bishop  of 
Utrecht),  learned  in  the 
old  learning ;  aspiration 
after  a  reform  of  the  clergy 
through  the  hierarchy. 


_  In  Spain,  from  1520, 
circulation  of  Lutheran 
writings  in  Spanish  trans- 
lations made  at  Antwerp. 


1523.— Juan  de  Avila,  "the 
Apostle  of  Andalusia," 
suffered  persecution  for 
Lutheran  doctrine. 


1523-34. —Sept.  25,  Pope 
Clement  vii.  (Julius 
Medici,  natural  son  of 
Julian  de  Mediui). 


1524. — Cardinal  Campeggio, 
Pope's  Legate  at  the  Diet 
of  Niiruberg. 

League  of  South  Ger- 
man Roman  Catholic 
States  at  Regensburg  (Fer- 
dinand of  Austria,  the 
Dukes  of  Bavaria,  and  the 
South  German  bishops). 
Terms  :  A  certain  measure 
of  ecclesiastical  reform; 
and  alliance  with  the  civil 
power ;  but  no  further 
spread  of  the  new  doc- 
trines. 


{!))  ZwingJian  Theologians. 

John  Qilcolampadius  (Hensgen), 
h.  1488  ;  1515,  pastor  at  Basel ; 
1519,  in  Augsburg ;  1522, 
Prof,  and  preacher  at  Basel ; 
d.  1531,  Nov.  24. 


Leo  Judseus  :  1523,  curate  in  St. 
Peter's  at  Zurich  ;  h,  1482  ;  d. 
1542. 


Oswald  Myconius  (Geisshiisler) : 
h.  1488  at  Lucerne;  1532-c?. 
1552,  Oct.  14,  Antistes  at  BaseL 


Conrad  Pellican  (Kiirsner) :  h. 
1478  ;  1493,  Franciscan  ;  from 
1502,  Lector  in  Franciscan 
Cloister  in  Basel ;  1527,  at 
Zurich  as  Prof,  of  Hebrew  :  d. 
155S. 


(c)  Intermediate  Theologians. 

Urbanus  Rhegius :  h.  1490,  at 
Argau  on  the  Bodeusee  ;  1512, 
Prof,  at  Ingolstadt:  1519, 
Priest  at  Constan.  e  ;  1520-22, 
Preacher  in  Augsburg;  from 
1530,  Reformer  in  Brunswick, 
in  the  service  of  Duke  Ernest ; 
d.  atCelle,  1541,  May  23. 

Ambrose  Blaurer :  h.  1492,  at 
Constance ;  1534-38,  Reformer 
of  Wiirtemberg ;  to  1548,  at 
Constance  ;  d.  at  Winterthur, 
1564.  (1534,  Stuttgart  Con- 
cord.) 


496 


CHRONOLOGICAL  SUMMARY 


Contemperaiy  Events. 


Lutheran  Church. 


Reformed  Church. 


1525,— Albert  of  Bran- 

doubnrg  (a.  1568); 
last  Grand  Master  of 
the  Teutonic  Knights; 
chfiiisfd  the  territory 
of  the  Order  into  the 
Dukedom  of  Pru^s&ia. 


1525-32.— EleotorJoh  n 

the  Constant  of  S;,x- 
ony  (brotlier  of  Fred- 
erick the  Wise). 


152fi.—Ang.  29:  Lewis, 

king  of  Hungary  and 
Bohemia,  falls  fi"glit- 
ing  at  Mohacz  against 
the  Turks. 

His     successor, 

Ferdinand  of  Austria 
(Oct.,  chosen  kiug 
of  Bohemia),  has  to 
make  good  his  claims 
to  Hungary  against 
the  Turks. 


1525. — Jan. :    Luther :   Against  the 

*""  TTea.  imibj  1  'n  qih  ets. 

May :  Exhorts  prinrea  and  peas- 
ants to  Iseep  the  peace,  with  com- 
ments on  the  twelve  articles. 
Then :  Against  Uie  robber-murder- 
ing  Pen.w/its. 

June  13,  Marries  Catherine  Ton 
Bora.  '  ""■■'  "■ 

"Co"nservative  tendency  of 
Lutheran  Reformation ;  separa- 
tion from  more  revolutionary 
elements. 

1625. — Dec. :  Luther,  De  Servo 
ArbitrtAj  Agam^t  Erasmus,  Ai«Tp<;3-<i 
delilero  arhUrio,  Sept.  1524. 


1526. — May  4:  League  at  Torgau 
between  Philip  of  Hesse  and  John 
the  Constant,  joined  in  June  at 
Magdeburg  by  other  evangelical 
princes. 

June  26,  League  of  North  Ger- 
man Roman  Catholic  princes  at 
Dessau, 


June  and  Jnly,  Diet  at  Speibr. 
"/?i  matters  of  relig Ion  zach  State 
shall  live,  govern,  and  behave  itsdf, 
a.s  it  shall  ansioer  to  Uod  and  His 
Iniperkd  Majesty." 


Oct.  20,  Synod  at  Romberg ; 
Hessian  Church  Order  by  Francis 
Lambert  {b.  1487,  at  Avignon ; 
Franciscan  ;  fled  152.!  to  Switzer- 
land ;  1527,  Prof,  in  Marburg ; 
d.  1530) ;  independence  of  the 
Christian  community,  and  strictest 
church  discipline. 


1525.— The  Mass  abolish- 
" - ed  in  Zurich  ;  public 
worship  very  simple 
and  ill  German  lan- 
gnacj^p  ;  Lord's  Supper 
sub  idraqxije. 

Zwingli's  Commen- 
tary and  first  part  of 
Zurich  translation  of 
Bible.  (First  complete 
edition  1531.) 


Zwingli's  distinctive  con- 
"fessional  statement  of 
his    doctrine    of    the 
Lord's  Supper. 

[Carlstadt  publishes 
his  theory  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  in  South  Ger- 
many ;  ^uxrtxHt ;  This 
My  Body,  is  the  Body, 
etc.] 

Zwingli  to  Matth.  Alber 
at  Reutlingen,  1524, 
Nov.  16,  Ma  nd  ucatio 
spirit ludis ;  then  in 
his  commentary. 

Against  Zwingli :  Bugen- 

hagen. 

i^or  Zwingli:  CEcolamp* 
dius. 

The  Syngramma  Suevi- 
cum,  1525  (at  Hall), 
by  Breuz,  Schnepf, 
Griebler,  etc.,  later 
Calvin. 

Luther  against  Zwingli-' 
(1)  in  his  preface  to 
Agricola's  translation 
of  the  Syngramma 
Suevieum;  (2)  in  1527, 
"That  the  words,  This 


is  My  Body,  etc. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  SUMMARY 


497 


Jtevolutionary  Movements. 


Severe  persecution 
of  the  Anabaptists 
(Manz  drowned  at 
Zurich,  1527  ;  Balth. 
llulimaier  burnt  at 
Vienna,  3528  ;  Hetzer 
beheaded  at  Con- 
stance, 1529). 


ifelchior  Hoffmann  :  b. 
at  Hall,  iu  Swabia ; 
1523,  in  Livonia; 
1527,  in  Holstein ; 
152i^,  at  Straslurg; 
thence  to  Fries]  and, 
where  he  joined  the 
Baptists  ;  then  in  the 
Netherlands  ;  1533, 
in  Strasburg  ;  d.  1540. 
(Ordinanz  Gottes)  : 
a  strict  luillenarian  of 
the  ii;ore  spiritual 
kind  ;  spreads  niillen- 
arian  views  among 
the  Baptists. 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


1524.— Peter  Caraffa.  Bishop 
of  Theate  [Pope  Paul  iv.], 
instituted  the  Order  of 
the  Theatini  to  stay  the 
spread  of  the  Reformation. 


1526.— May  22:  League  at 
Cognac  against  Charles  v. 
(the  Pope,  Francis  I., 
Venice^  and  Milan). 


Protestant  Theology. 


Martin    Bucer :     6.      1491,     at 

Schlettstadt ;  1505,  Doiiun- 
lean  ;  froin  iri24,  pastor  in 
Strasburg ;  1549,  under  Ed- 
ward VI.  in  England,  and  Prof, 
at  Cambridge  ;  d.  1551,   Feb. 


Wolfgang  Fabricius  Capito :  h. 
1478  ;  1515,  in  Basel ;  1520,  in 
Mainz:  \b'Z'6-d.  1541,  Dec, 
Provost  of  St.  Thomas,  Stras- 
burg. 

{d)  Zvringlian  Confessions. 

1523.  —  Jan.    29,    Zwingli's  67 

Articles. 

Nov.  17,  Instructions  to  the 
Council  of  Zurich. 


1530.— July  3,  Fidei  Ratio  ad 
Caroluvi  V.  (Zwingli,  assented 
to  by  CEcolanipadius  and  other 
Reformers). 


1630. — Confessio  Tetrapolitana 
(Strasburg,  Constance,  Lindau, 
Memmingen)  ;  Bucer,  Capito, 
Hedio  ;  during  the  sitting  of 
the  Diet  at  Augsburg. 


1534.  —  Confessio  Basiliensis 
(Myconius)  accepted  by  Miihl- 
hauseu  in  1537,  and  called 
Conf.  Muhlhusiana, 


1636. — Confessio  Helvetica  Prior 
(Baail.  ii.)  drawn  up  at  Basel 
(Jan.  to  March)  by  delegates  j 
from  the  Evangelical  Cantons, 
and  by  their  theologians,  Bul- 
linger,  Myconius,  Grynaua, 
Leo  Judieus,  etc. 


32' 


498 


CHRONOLOGICAL   SUMMARY 


Contemporary  Events. 


1527.— Sack  of  Rome. 


1527-20.— The  second 
war  between  Charles 
V.  and  Francis  T.; 
Peace  of  Canibrai, 
Aug.  1529. 

1527.— Henry   viii.   of 

England  seeks  di- 
vorce from  Catharine 
of  Aragon  (Charles 
v.'s  aunt);  1529, 
Wolsey  in  disgrace ; 
Thomas  More,  chan- 
cellor. 


^ul 


—  Sept. -Oct.  14, 
Suliniau  lays  siege  to 
Vienna. 


Lutheran  Church. 


Luther. — German  Mass  ;  Order  of 
Public  Worship. 


Frederick  I.  of  Denmark  adheres  to 
the  Lutheran  doctrine  (John 
Tausen  in  Jutland  from  1524), 


1527. — The  first  Visitation  of 
EJertoral  Saxony ;  Gustavus  Vasa 
proi)oses  the  Reformation  to  the 
Diet  at  Westeras. 

Frederick  I.  of  Denmark,  at  the 
Diet  of  Odensee,gives  the  reformed 
religion  the  .same  privileges  as  the 
Roman  Catholic 


1528. — Otto  V.  Pack's  statement  of  a 

Roman  Catholic  League  formed  at 
Breslau,  1527 ;  the  Reformation 
spreads  in  Norway. 


1529.— Feb.  26,  Diet   at    Speler ; 

'  April  12,  the  decision  of  Roman 
Catholic  majority  of  Electors  and 
Princes,  "  Whoever  has  enforced 
the  Edict  of  Worms  is  to  do  .so 
still ;  the  others  are  to  allow  no 
further  innovations  ;  no  one  to  be 
prevented  from  celebrating  Mass" ; 
April  19,  agreed  to  by  the  cities. 

Protest:  April  25,  Appeal 
talceu  to'Tlie  Emperor  and  Council 
by  Saxony,  Hesse,  Brandenburg, 
Anhalt,  Luneburg,  and  fourteen 
cities. 


Reformed  Church. 


Zwiugli's  ecclesiastical 
and  political  church 
principles;  his  political 
reformation  of  Switzer- 
land ;  political  league 
of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Forest  Cantons  to  pre- 
serve their  supremacy. 

1526.— The  Roman  Cath- 
olic Cantons  attacking 
the  Evangelical. 

May:  Disputation  at 
Baden  (Eck  and  CEcol- 
ampadius. 


1528.— The  Reformation 

victorious  in  St.  Gallen 
(Joachim  Vadianus, 
John  Kessler) ;  and  in 
Berne. 

1523. — Reformation  con- 
quers in  Basel  (CEcolam- 
padius,  Capito,  Hedio). 

League  of  five  Forest 
Cantons  with  the  House 
of  Haps  burg. 

June  24,  Peace  of 
Cappel  ;  the  Forest 
Cantons  abandon  the 
Hapsburg  League  and 
recognise  liberty  of  con- 
science. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  SUMMARY 


499 


Revolutionary  Movements. 


Roman  Catholic  Churoa. 


Caspar  Schwenkfeld :  h. 
1490,  at  Os.siiig,  near 
Liegnitz ;  iu  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Duke  of 
Liegnitz;  1525,  be- 
lieved that  he  had 
found  an  explanation  ! 
of  the  words  of  the  ' 
institution  :  "  Quod  ' 
ipse  panis  fraetus  ' 
est  corpori  esurieuti, 
nempe  cilnis,  hoc  est 
corpus  meum,  cibus 
videlicet  esurientium 
onimarum  "  ;  hence 
his  doctrine  of  Christ, 
The  Inner  Word  {J)e 
cursu  Verbi  Dei,  ori- 
gine  fidei  c.t  rafiove 
justijicationis,  1527) ; 
of  the  Person  of 
Christ  (not  made 
man,  but  begotten  by 
tlie  Divine  nature : 
His  flesh.  Divine)  ; 
1528,  driven  from 
Silesia ;  in  Strasburg, 
Augsburg,  Speier, 
Uliii,  persecuted  from 
1589  by  Lutheran 
theologians  ;  in  many 
controversies  ;  d. 
1561,  at  Uim  ;  fol- 
lowers in  Silesia ; 
since  1730  in  Penu- 
•ylvauia. 


1527.— Process  of  the  Sor- 
bonne  against  Jacciues  le 
FOvre  [d.  1537,  on  a  jour- 
ney to  Strasburg,  under 
the  protection  of  Margaret 
of  Navarre). 

1527.  —  May  6,  Charles  of 
Bourbon  storms  Rome  ; 
the  Pope  shut  up  in  St. 
Angelo  till  June  6 ;  Charles 
v.,  master  of  most  of  the 
States  of  the  Church,  pro- 
poses to  limit  the  temporal 
power  of  the  Pope  ;  the 
Pope  appeals  to  England 
and  France  ;  a  French 
army  equipped  by  English 
money  marches  to  his 
assistance. 

1528.— June  29  :  Peace  be- 
tween Emperor  and  Pope 
at  Barcelona ;  the  Pope 
gets  back  the  States  of  the 
Church  and  Florence ; 
Heresy  to  be  extermin- 
ated. 


Protestant  Theology. 


(e)  Lutheran  Gon/essiona. 

1529.  —  Lnther'a  Larger  and 
Shorter  Catechism  in  German ; 
appeared  simultaneously. 


1530.— Confessio  Augustana;  or, 

Augsburg  Confession,  framed 
out  of— (1)  the  15  Marburg 
Articles ;  (2)  the  17  Schwabach. 
Articles  dravni  up  by  Luther  ; 
(3)  Torgau  Articles,  compiled 
by  Luther,  Melanchthon,  Justus 
Jonas,  Bugenhagen,  and  pre- 
sented to  the  Elector  at  Torgau 
in  March  1530.  The  work  of 
Melanchthon  assisted  by  the 
evangelical  theologians  assem- 
bled at  Augsburg,  and  revised 
by  Luther. 


Statement  of  Evangelical 
Doctrine,  **  In  qua  cemi  potest, 
nihil  inesse,  quod  discrepet  a 
Scriptnris  vel  ab  ecclesia 
catholica  vel  ab  ecclesia 
Romana,  quatenus  ex  serip- 
toribus  nota  est.  .  .  .  Sed 
dissensus  est  de  quibusdam 
abusibus,  qui  sinecertaanctori- 
tate  in  ecclesiam  irrepserunt." 
Philip  of  Hesse  signed  with 
protest  against  Article  X.  on 
the  Lord's  Supper  in  the  In- 
variaia. 

Impossible  to  fix  the  exact  text 
of  either  the  German  or  the 
Latin  editions  ;  Melanchthon's 
first  printed  edition,  Witten- 
berg, 1530,  in  4to. 

The  Variata  (variations  specially 
in  Article  X.)  since  1540. 


The  Apology  for  the  Augsburg 
G&njession.  —  The  'prima  de- 


500 


CHRONOLOGICAL  SUMMARY 


Contemporary  Events. 


1530.— Feb.  24,  Charles 
V.  crowned  at  Bo- 
logna by  the  Pope. 
No  German  princes 
present. 


1531.  —  Ferdinand  of 
Austria,  king  of  the 
Romans  ;  Bavaria 
and  Electoral  Saxony 
oppose. 


1632.  —  Aug. -1547, 

John  Frederick  the 
Magnanimous,  Elec- 
tor of  Saxony;  d, 
1654. 


Lutheran  Church. 


Reformed  Church- 


Separation  between  the  Lutheran  and  South  German  Protest* 
ants  ;  Luther  objects  to  aru;ed  resistance  ;  Zwingli  plans  tc 
abolish  the  Papacy  and  the   Mediaeval  and  Papal  Empire 
Philip  of  Hesse  tries  to  bring  about  union. 


Oct.  1-4,  Eeligious  conference  at  Marburg  (Luther,  Melanch- 
thon,  Zwingli,  CEcolampadius,  Justus  Jonas, '  Osiander, 
Brenz,  etc.);  on  Oct.  4,  union  on  fourteen  articles,  division 
on  fifteenth — Sacrament  of  Supper.  Zwingli:  "There  are 
none  on  earth's  round  I  would  more  gladly  be  at  one  with 
than  the  men  of  Wittenberg."     Luther  :  '*  You  have  another 


Spirit  than  we."    Zwingli's  hand  refused. 


Oct.  16,  Luther  at  the  Convent  of  Schwabach  ;  Nov.  30,  at 
Schmalkald  ;  Saxony  breaks  away  from  South  German  cities. 


1530. — Diet  at  Augsburg:  June 

15,  entry  of  Emperor  ;  fruitless 
negotiations  with  the  Evangelical 
princes  to  induce  them  to  join  the 
Corpus-Christi  procession  ;  .June 
20,  Diet  opened  ;  June  25,  Augs. 
Confess,  read  and  given  in  (Aug. 
3,  Confutation  read) ;  July  11, 
Confes.  Tetrapolitana  read) ;  Con- 
futation, Oct.  17),  and  Zwingli's 
Fidei  Ratio ;  Aug.  16-29,  Nego- 
tiations with  Melanchthon,  in 
which  he  proves  too  pliable. 

Nov.  19. — Decree  of  Diet.  Pro- 
testants to  get  till  April  15,  1531, 
then  suppression  by  force. 

1531. — Schmalkald  League  of  Pro- 
testants— at  the  head,  Hesse  and 
Saxouy. 


1532.— Diet  of  Niimberg:   Tolera- 
tion till  a  General  Council. 

Dessan  receives  the  Reformation. 


The  Roman  Catholic 
Cantons  do  not  observe 
the  terms  of  peace. 


1531.— May  15,  at  Aaran 

the  Forest  Cantons 
are  refused  provisions, 
Zwingli  objecting. 


Oct.  11,  Battle  of 
Cappel ;  Zwingli  slain  ; 
Second  Peace  of  Cappel. 

Henry  Bullinger, 
Zwingli's  successor. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  SUMMARY 


501 


Revolutionary  Movements. 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


Protestant  Theologfy. 


1533.— r^e  Kingdom  of 
Christ  in  Miinster. 

Bernhard  Roth- 
ma^in,  Evangelical 
Superintendent  iu 
Munster,  joins  the 
Anabaptists ;  Henry 
Roll  and  the  Wassen- 
berg  preachers  from 
Jiilich. 

Summer :  Melchio- 
rites  in  Miinster. 

Nov. :  Jan  Matthie- 
sen. 


1534.— Lent:  Riot,  de- 
struction of  images 
and  cloisters. 

Easter  Eve  :  Mat- 
thiesen  overthrown  ; 
John  of  Leyden  at 
the  head  of  the  Ana- 
baptists ;  Theocracy. 

1535.— Eve  of  St.  John : 
Miinster  taken. 


1530. — Reformed  congrega- 
tions in  Spain.  In  Se- 
ville :  Rodrigo  de  Valero, 
Joh.  Egidius,  Ponce  de  la 
Fuente.  In  Valladolid, 
1555,  Augustin  Cazalla. 

Francis  Enzinaa  trans- 
lates the  N.T. ;  1556,  new 
translation  by  Juan  Perez. 

All  stamped  out  by 
Philip  n.  and  the  Inquisi- 
tion. 

Italy. — ^The  German  Refor- 
mation awakens  religious 
life  and  Angustiuian  theo- 
logy ;  Contarini,  Regi- 
nald Pole,  Joh,  de  Morone 
(Archbishop  of  Modena), 
Peter  Paul  Verger  ius 
(went  over  to  the  Refor- 
mation in  1548  ;  d.  16u5). 

Reformation  at  Ferrara 
(Renee  married,  1527,  to 
Hercules  ii.) ;  at  Venice  ; 
at  Naples  (Juan  Valdez, 
d,  1540 ;  and  Bernard 
Ochino) ;  at  Lucca  (Peter 
Martyr). 


1534-49.  —  Paul  in.  Pope 
(Farnese) ;  Vergerius  his 
legate  in  Germany. 


lineatio  apologice  by  Melanch- 
thon  in  Sept.  1530,  at  Augs- 
burg ;  fully  revised,  Nov. 
1530-April  1531 ;  first  edition, 
April  1531  ;  German  edition 
by  Justus  Jonas,  Oct.  1531. 


The    SchmalTcald    Articles,    by 

Luther,  for  the  Protestant 
Conveiitiou  at  Schnialkald, 
1557,  and  with  relereuce  to  the 
proposed  General  Council  at 
Mantua.    [Strictly  Lutheran.] 


Controversies  in  the  Lvtheran 

Church. 

1548-55.  —  Adiaphoridic  :  Fla- 
cius,  Wigand,  Amsdorf.  against 
Leipzig  Interim. 


1549-66.  —  Osiander  :  Andrew 
Osiander  (at  Nurnberg,  1522- 
48 ;  at  Konigsberg,  1549-£/, 
1552) ;  1550,  De  Justificat'ume  ; 
1551,  De  Unico  Mediator e  J e.s%L 
Christo;  "Justification  is  a 
participation  in  the  righteous- 
ness of  Christ,"  cvjus  notura 
divina  homini  quasi  iiifun- 
ditnr.  In  connection  tliere- 
with  his  doctrine  of  the  Divine 
image  in  man. 

In  opposition  :  Francis  Stan- 
carus  from  Mantua  (1551-52 
in   Konigsberg,  then    in   the 


602 


CHRONOLOGICAL   SU.MiMARY 


Contemporary  Events. 

Lutheran  Church. 

Reformed  Church. 

Henry    vin.     di- 

vorced    by     Parlia- 

ment from  Catharine 

of  Aragon. 

Nov.   :       Marries 

Anne  Boleyn. 

1534.— Bestoration    of 

1534.— Lutheran  Reformation  gains 

Reformation  in   French 

DLikeUlrichofWiir- 

Wlirtemberg,  Anhalt,  Augsburg, 

Switzerland         under 

temberg  by  Pliilip  of 
Hesse. 

and  Pomerania. 

Calvin. 

1535.  --  Joachim     n., 

Elector  of  Branden- 

William  Fard  {h.  1489, 

berg. 

in  Dauphin6  ;  1530,  in 
Neufchatel;    1532,    in 

1536-38. -Third    war 

1536.— Wittenberg  Concord ;  Melan- 

Berne;    d.     1565,     in 

between  Charles   v. 

chthou  and  Bucer  ;  Lord's  Supper 

Geneva) ;    and     Feter 

and  Francis  j. 

in    Lutheran    sense  only ;   eating 

Viret  {b.  1511,  at  Orhe; 

of  the  unworthy,  "of  the  unbeliev- 

1531-59, at  Lausanne ; 

ing,"  avoided  ;  Baptism  ;  Absolu- 

from 1561,  at  Nisnies 

tion  ;  came  to  nothing ;  difBculties 

and  Lyons  ;  d.  1571) ; 

concealed,  not  explained. 

from       1534,       Refor- 

Reformation victorious  in  Den- 

mation     preachers    in 

n^ark. 

Geneva. 

1537  —Convention  at  Schmalkald  ; 

the  Schmalkald  Articles. 

1536.— John  Calvin  at 
Geneva  :  b.  1509,  July 

1538.  —  Ten        years' 

1538.— Roman  Catholic  League  at 

10,  at  Noyon  ;  studied 

truce  at  Nice. 

Niirnberg. 

at  Orleans  and  Paris  ; 
1533,  joined  Reforma- 

1539. —  Reformation   victorious    in 

tion  in  Paris ;  at  Basel ; 

Ducal  Saxony   and  in  Electoral 

1536,  Institiitio  Chris- 

Brandenburg. 

tianseReligionis  ;then 
in  Ferrara ;  strict  eccle- 

1510. —June ;  Conference  at  Has^enan. 

siastical        discipline  ; 

Nov.    25-Jan.   14,    at    Worms 

Easter,  1538,  banished 

(Granvella,  Melanchthon,  Bucer, 

from  Geneva,  goes  to 

Capito,  Brenz,  Calvin,  Eck,  Coch- 

Strasburg ;        recalled 

laeus). 

1541;  d.  1564,  May  27. 

Feb.:  Regensburg  Interim. 

CHRONOLOGICAL   SUxMMARY 


503 


Revolutionary  Movements. 


1536.— Jan.  22,  John  of 
Leydeii,  Knipperdoll- 
ing,  and  Krechting 
executed. 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


1534.— David  Joris:  h. 

1501,  at  Delft ;  joins 
the  Anabaptists; 
reforms  them ;  his 
influence  in  the 
Ketherlands  and  East 
Ffiesland  ;  1542,  his 
W^uiderbuch  ;  1544, 
in  Basel ;  a  Mystical- 
spiritualistic  specula- 
tion with  a  rationalist 
tendency. 


The  Mennonites. 

MennoSimonis:  h.  1492, 
at  Witnuirsum  ;  1524, 
priest ;  1536,  resigne/i 
nis  office,  d\sgusted 
with  the  persecution 
of  the  Miinster  Ana- 
baptists ;  baptized  by 
an  apostle  of  Jan 
Matthiesen ;  reformed 
and  organised  the 
Anabaptist  commun- 
ities in  Holland  and 
Friesland ;  d.  at  Olde- 
sloe  in  1559  ;  expelled 
the  enthusiastic  fanat- 
ical elements,  and  in- 
creased the  tendency 
towards  Donatism. 


1536.  — Paul  III. summons  the 
long- promised  Council  to 
meet  at  Maiitau  ;  1537, 
adjourned  ;  called  to  meet 
at  Vicenza;  again  ad- 
journed. 


1542.  —  Antonio      Paleario 

(burnt  1570) ;  Del  beneftcio 
di  Gesu  Christo  crocijisso 
verso  i  Christ iani. 


1540.— Sept,  27,  Societas 
Jesu  constituted  by  Paul 
III.;  Don  Ini(jo  [Ignatius) 
of  Loyola,  h.  1491,  at  the 
Castle  Loyolaiu  the  Basque 
Provinces;  wounded  (1521) 
at  Pampelona  ;  legends  of 
the  Saints ;  studies  at 
Barcelona  ;  from  1528  in 
Paris.  In  1534,  with 
six  companions  (Francis 
Xavier,  Jac.  Lainez,  Pet. 
Lefevre,  etc.),  he  took  the 
three  monnstic  vows  and 
a  fourth  of  absolute  obedi- 
ence to  the  Pope.  Loyola, 
d.  1556  ;  Lainez,  d.  1564. 

"Toadvance the  interests 
of   the    Roman    Catholic 


Protestant  Theologry. 


Siebenbiirgen  and  in  Poland  ; 
d.  1574  ;  1562,  De  Trinifate  et 
Mediatore,  "  Christ  our  riglit- 
eousness  only  as  regards  His 
human  nature.** 


1551-62.  —  Majorist  i  George 
Major  {d.  1574,  Prof,  at 
Wittenberg)  ;  bona  opera 
necessaria  esse  ad  salutem. 
Against  him,  Amsdorf;  bona 
opera  p&niidosa  esse  ad 
salutem. 

1556-60. —Sijnergist :  Pfeffinger, 
1555,  Propos.  de  libera  arhitrio 
(in  Melanchthon's  synergistic 
sense) ;  against  him,  Amsdorf 
{\b59>,Confutatio)',  and  Flacius. 

1560. — Disputation  at  Weimar 
between  Flacius  and  Strigel. 
Flacius  :  Original  Sin  is  of  the 
substance  of  man.  The  Lu- 
theran doctrine  overcomes. 
Heshusius ;  de  servo  arbitrio. 


1527-40,  and   renewed  1558. — 

Antinomian:  John  Agricola, 
b.  1492,  at  Eisleben  ;  d.  1566, 
Court  preacher  at  Berlin  ;  1527, 
against  Melanchthon ;  and 
1537,  against  Luther.  Contri- 
tion is  taught  not  by  the  Law 
but  by  the  Gospel.  Recants 
1540.  From  1556  controversy 
about  "  Tertius  usus  legis," 


1567. — Cryptn-Calvinist :  Melan- 
chthon's admissions  to  Cal- 
vinists  in  doctrines  of  Lord's 


504 


CHRONOLOGICAL    SUxMMARY 


Clontemporary  Events. 


1541-53.— Duke  Mau- 
rice of  Saxony;  made 
Elector,  1546. 

1541. — Diet  at  Regens- 
burg  ;  Snliraau  con- 
quers the  Hungarians. 

1542-44.— Fourth  war 
of  Charles  v.  with 
Francis  I.;  Peace  of 
Crespi. 

1542.— Diet  at  Speier  ; 
union  against  the 
Turk. 


Lutheran  Church. 


1541.— April  27-May  22,  Conference 
at  Regensburg  (Contarini,  Melan- 
chthon,  Bucer,  Eck),  Transubstan- 
tlatiou  the  difficulty. 


1542.— Nicolas  ▼.  Anudorf  Bishop 
of  Naumburg. 


1543.  —  Reformation  in  the  Arch- 
bishopric of  Koln ;  Herman  v. 
Wied,  the  archbishop,  advised  by 
Bucer  and  Melanclithon  ;  excom- 
municated, 1546  ;  abdicates,  1547 ; 
d.  1552. 


1544.— Diet  at  Speier  ;  recognition  of  the  Protestants ;  peace 
all  round  till  a  General  Council. 

1545. — Refoi^matio  Wittenbergensis, 

1546. — Second  Religious  Conference  at  Regensburg  ;  Feb.  18, 
Luther  dies  at  Eisleben  ;  the  Protestants  do  not  appear  at 
the  Diet. 

1546-47. — The  Schmalkald  War ;  June  19,  league  between 
Maurice  and  the  Emperor ;  July  20,  decree  against  John 
Frederick  and  Philip  ;  Oct.  27,  Maurice  made  Elector ; 
April  24,  Battle  of  Miihlberg,  John  Frederick,  prisoner ; 
Philip  surrenders  at  Halle;  Emperor  breaks  faith,  and 
keeps  the  princes  in  prison. 


1547-59.  —  Henry  ii. 
of  France ;  spouse, 
Catherine  de  Medici, 
d.  1589. 


1548. — May  16,  Augsburg  Interim 
retains  Roman  Catholic  hier- 
archy, ceremon-ies,  feasts  and 
fasts ;  marriage  of  clergy  and 
Lord's  Supper  svb  utraque  per- 
mitted. 


Reformed  Churdi. 


Calvin's  Ecclesiastical 
polity  in  Geneva. — 
Worship :  prayer  and 
preacliing.  Organisa- 
tion :  Presby  terian.  1542. 
— Jan.  ;  Ordonnances 
ecclesiastiques  de  I'eglist 
de  Geneve.  Pastors, 
doctors,  elders,  deacons. 
Church  discipline. 


Reformation  in  France 

1559-98. 

Earlier :  Francis  /..  Hu- 
manist, careless  in 
religion,  treated  the 
Reformation  as  a  poli- 
tician ;  his  sister  Mar- 
garet, Queen  of  Navarre 
{d.  1549),  protected  the 
Reformers ;  severe  per- 
secution of  French 
Protestants  in  spite  of 
alliance  with  German 
Protestant  princes,  and 
an  invitation  to  Melan- 
chthon  to  settle  in 
France,  1535. 

Henry  ii.  :  Anthony  of 
Navarre,  and  his  wife 
Joan  d'Albret,  at  the 
head  of  the  Protestants 
in  France. 

1559.— May  25-29,  First 
Reformed  Synod  at 
Paris,  assembled  by  a 
Parisian  pastor,  An- 
thony Chandieu ;  Conf. 
Gallica. 


CHRONOLOGICAL   SUMMARY 


505 


Revolutionary  Movements. 

Roman  Catholic  Church. 

Protestant  Theology. 

His  followers,  Men- 

Hierarchy  against  Protest- 

Supper, Christology,  and  Pre- 

nonnites, tolerated  in 

antism  within  and  with- 

destination. 

1572  by  William   of 

out  the  Romish  Church." 

Orange  in  the  Nether- 

From these  controversies  a 

lands  ;  also  found  in 

Xavier's    mission    work 

need   for  concord  in  the   Lu- 

Eraden,      Hamburg, 

in  East  Asia. 

theran  Church  ;  hence  various 

Danzig,     Elbing,     in 

forms  of  concord,   out  of  all 

the   Palatinate,    and 

Society's  Morals  :  casu- 

which came  tLe  Formula  Con- 

in   Moravia ;   moder- 

istry. 

cordicB. 

ated      the      original 

Anabaptist  spirit ;  re- 

Its dogmatic :  supersti- 

(1) Swabian  Concord  of  Jac. 

jected  all  dogmatic  ; 

tion  systematised. 

Andreas    (from     1562 

forbade     oaths     and 

Prof,  at  Tubingen,  d. 

war  ;  appealed  to  the 

1590)  in  1574;    1575, 

letter  of  Scripture. 

1542.— Cardinal  Caraffa  ad- 

Swabian   Concord    of 

vises  the  reconstruction  of 

Martin  Chemnitz ;  1576, 

the   Inquisition   to  crush 

Maulbronn  Formula  of 

Protestantism  in  Italy. 

Lucas  Osiander. 
(2)  Torgau  Convention  with 

1545.  —  Council    of    Trent 

the  Torgau  Book. 

opened  :  First  period,  Mar. 

11,  1547,  at  Trent ;  April 

Thence  1577,  Formula  Con- 

21,   L547-Sept.    13,    1549, 

cordice. 

at  Bologna.  Second  period, 

Mayl,1.551-April28,1552, 

at  Trent.     Third   period. 

The  principal  Z/utheran 
Theologians. 

Jan.  13, 1562-Dec.  4,  1563 

(25  Sessions).     Romanist 

doctrinal    teaching    con- 

Martin ChemnUz :  1554-c?.  1586, 

cluded  and  petrified. 

Superintendent  in  Brunswick  ; 
Mxamen  Concilii  Trid.  ;  1565- 
73,  Loci  TheologicL 

Matthew  Flaeius:    b.   1520,  at 
Albona  in    Illyria ;    1545,   at 
Wittenberg  ;  1548,  at  Magde- 
burg ;    1557-61,    at   Jena;    d. 
at  Frankfort-on-Maine,   1575, 
March  11. 

ooa 


CHRONOLOGICAL   SUMMARY 


Ck>nteinporary  Events. 


Lutheran  Church. 


Reformed  Church. 


1547-53.— Edward  vi. 
of  England:  6.1537. 


1553-58.  —  (Bloody) 
Mary  of  England. 


1554. — July  9,  Maurice 
slain  in  battle  near 
Sievershausen, 
against  Albert,  Mar- 
grave of  Branden- 
burg. 

Ferdinand  beaten 
by  the  Turks  in 
Hungary. 


1555-98.— Philip  n.  of 

Spain. 

1556-64.  —  Ferdinand 
I.,  Emperor, 


1558-1G03.— Elizabeth 
of  England. 


1559-60.  —  Francis  n. 
of  France  (married 
Mary  of  Scotland). 

1560-74.— Charles  ix. 
of  Franca. 


1648. — Leipzig  Interim  (Maurice  of 
Saxony  and  Melanchthon). 


1551. — Vehement     desire     of    the 

Emperor  that  the  Protestants 
should  submit  to  the  Council  of 
Trent ;  Secret  League  of  Maurice 
of  Saxony  with  Henry  il.  of 
France. 

Oct. :  Wiirtemburg  ambassadors, 
and  Jan.  1552,  Saxon  ambassa- 
dors at  Trent. 


1552. — Mar.  20,  Maurice  breaks 
loose  ;  May  19,  seizes  Ehrenberg 
Castle  and  Ehrenberg  Pass,  the 
keys  of  the  Tyrol ;  the  Council 
breaks  up ;  July,  Treaty  of 
Passau ;  John  Frederick  and 
Philip  free. 


1555. — Sept.  25  :  Religious  Peace  of 
Augsburg  ;  the  Lutheran  Church 
(Augs.  Confes.)has  the  same  leg.il 
rights  as  the  Roman  Catholic : 
Cujus  regio  ejus  religio ;  the  Re- 
servatum  ecclesiasticum ;  the  Re- 
formed Church  not  recognised. 


1558. — Disputes  between  old  Luther- 
ans (Guesiolutheraui)  and  Me- 
lanchthon's  followers. 


1560.  —  Death 
April  19. 


of     Melanchthon, 


1586-91. — Crypto-Calvinist  troubles 
in  Electoral  Saxony  ;  suppression 
of  Calvinism  ;  execution  of  Krells, 
1601. 


1561.— Sept. :  Religioui 
Conference  at  Poissy ; 
Theodore  Beza. 


1562. — Jan.:  Protestants 
gain  right  to  worship 
outside  the  towns ; 
Francis  of  Guise  mas- 
sacres Protestant  con- 
gregation at  Vassy. 


1562-63.— Huguenot  war. 
Anthony  of  Navarre  d. ; 
Francis  of  Guise  shot 
before  Orleans. 


1567-68  and  1569-70.— 
Huguenot  wars. 


1572.— Aug.  24,  Paris 
massacre  on  eve  of  St. 
Bartholomew  ;  Coligny 
and  20,000  Huguenots 
murdered. 

1574-76.  — Huguenot  war; 
Holy  League  of  the 
Guises. 


1588.— Henry  and  Louis 
of  Guise  slain. 


1589.— Henry  ill.  mur- 
dered by  a  League 
fanatic,  J.  Clement, 
Aug.  1. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  SUMMARY 


6o: 


Anglican  Church. 


England,  1547-1600, 
under  Henry  viii. : 
John  Frith,  William 
Tindal. 


1534.— Act  of  Parlia- 
ment about  Royal 
supremacy  ;  the  King 
"the  only  supreme 
head  on  earth  of  the 
Church  of  England  "  ; 
at  the  head  of  the 
Evangelical  party, 
Thomas  Cranmer 
[1533,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury]  and 

Thomas  Cromwell ; 
Translation  of  the 
Bible,  1538. 


1539.— July  28,  Tran- 
substantiation ;  re- 
fusal of  cup  to  the 
laity  ;  celibacy  of  the 
clergy ;  Masses  for 
the  dead  ;  auricular 
cbnfession. 

The  Reformation  of 
Henry  viii.  the  act  of 
the  King,  and  meant 
only  revolt  from  the 
medieval  system, 
with  the  King  in  the 
place  of  the  Pope. 


Isolation  of  the 
Church  of  England ; 
no   relation    to   the 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


1564. — Professio  Fidei  Tri- 
dentinoe :  1566,  Catechis- 
mus  Romanus  (Leonardo 
Marini,  Egidio  Foscarari, 
Muzio  Calini). 

1548.— Philip  Neri  founds 
the  Oratory. 

1550-64.— Julius    in.     (del 

Monte). 

1551. — Foundation  of  Jesuit 
Collegium  Romanum. 

1552.— Foundation  of  Col- 
legium Germanicum. 

1555-59.— Paul  iv.  (CaraflFa) 
protests  against  the  Peace 
of  Augsbmg ;  Inquisition. 


1559-65.— Pius  iv.  (Medici) 
rules  under  the  influence 
of  his  nephew  Cardinal 
Charles  Borromeo,  Arch- 
bishop of  Milan,  d.  1684. 

1564. — Index  librorum  pro- 

hibitorum. 

1566-72. — Pius  v.,  a  zealous 
Dominican. 


1567. — Bull  of  excommuni- 
cation against  79  Augus- 
tinian  propositions  of 
Michael  Baius  (d.  1589), 
Chancellor  of  University 
of  Louvain. 


1568. — Breviarium, 


Protestant  Theology. 


Catalogus  Testium  Veritatis, 
1556  ;  Ecdesi.  Hist,  per  ali- 
quot .  ,  ,  st  udiosos  et  pios  viros 
in  U7'be  Magdcburgica  (the 
MagdeburgCenturies),  13  vols., 
1560-74  ;  Clavis  Script.  Sac, 
1567  ;  Glossa  Compendaria  in 
N.T.,  1570,  etc. 


John  Gerhard:  h.  1582,  at 
Quedlinburg;  1606,  Superiu- 
tendent  at  Heldburg ;  1615, 
General  Superintendent  at 
Coburg;  \Q\Q-d.  1637,  Prof, 
at  Jena.  Loci  Theologici,  1610- 
25  ;  Medit,  Sac.,  etc. 


Leonkard  Butter :  1596-d.  1616, 
Prof,  at  Wittenberg ;  Com- 
pendium  Loc.  Theol.  1610 ; 
Loci  Commun.  Theolog.,  1619. 


The  confessional  writings  of  the 

Reformed   Church  universally 


Catechismus  ecdesice  Gene- 
vensis ;  1541,  French  ;  1545, 
Latin  :  Calvin. 


Consensio  in  re  sacramen- 
tarla  ministrorum  Tigur. 
Ecdes.  ei  Joh.  Calmni. 


508 


CHRONOLOGICAL  SUMMARY 


Contemporary  Events. 


Lutheran  Church. 


Beformed  Church. 


1560-78.— Mary  .Queen 
of  Scots ;  executed 
1587. 

1564-76.  —  Maximi- 
lian II.,  Emjperor. 

1574-89.  —  Henry  iii. 
of  France. 

1576-1612.  —  Rudolph 
J  I.,  Emperor. 

1588-1648.  —  Christian 
IV.,  King  of  Den- 
mark. 

1589-1610.— Henry  iv. 
of  France ;  became 
Koman  Catholic, 
1593  ;  murdered  by 
Ravaillac,  1610,  May 
14. 

1598-1621.— PhUip  in. 

of  Spain. 


The  Lutheran  Chvrch  loses  to — 
(a)  The  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

1558.— Bavaria. 

1578.— The  Austrian  Duchy  (Ru- 
dolph n.). 

1584. — The  Bishoprics  of  Wiirzburg, 
Bamberg,  Salzburg,  Hildesheim, 
etc. 

1594.— Steiermark,  Carinthia  (Fer- 
dinand II.), 

1607.— Donauwerth. 


(6)  The  Reformed  Church. 

1560.— The  Palatinate;  1563,  Hei- 
delberg Catechism  (Reformed 
under  Frederick  iii, ;  Lutheran 
under  Louis  vi.,  1576-83;  Re- 
formed under  Frederick  I  v.,  1583- 
1610.) 

1568.— Bremen. 

1596.— Anhalt  (John  George,  1587- 
1603);  repeal  of  Consist.  Syst. 
and  Lutheran  Catechism ;  1597- 
1628.  Calvinist  Articles. 


1593.— Jlenry  JV.  be- 
comes a  Roman  Ca- 
tholic. 

1598.— Edict  of  Nantes: 
liberty  of  conscience ; 
right  of  public  wor- 
ship ;  full  civil  })rivi- 
leges;  cities  given  to 
the  Huguenots  as 
pledges. 


1620-28.— Huguenot  re- 
volts. 

1629.— La  Roche.le  takea 

Edict  of  Nismes. 
Ecclesiastical  ricrhts 
guaranteed  to  the  Ilu- 
guenots. 


CHRONOLOGICAL   SUMMARY 


509 


Anglican  Church. 


Papacy ;  no  relation 
to  the  Reformed 
Churches. 

L547.— Under  Lord  Pro- 
tector Somerset;  Peter 
Martyr  Vermigli  {b. 
1500,  at  Florence ; 
1542.  in  Strasburg ; 
d.  1.562,  in  Zurich) 
and  Bernard  Ochino 
{/).  1487)  brought  to 
Oxford;  Martin  Bucer 
and  Paul  Fagius,  to 
Cambridge. 


The  Book  of  Hom- 


1648.— The  Book  of 
Common  Prayer ;  re- 
vised, 1552. 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


1570. — Misscde  Romanum, 

1572-85.  —  Gregory  xin.; 
congratulatory  letter  to 
Charles  IX.  about  Mas- 
sacre of  St.  Bartholomew ; 
Te  Deum  at  Rome  in 
honour  of  event. 

1582. — Reform  of  Calendar. 

1582-1610.— Jesuit  missions 
in  China. 


1585-90.— Sixtus  V. 
can  Library. 


Vati- 


1588. — Baronius'  Ecd.  An- 
nales. 

1590.— Infallible  edition  of 
the  Vulgate. 

1592-1605.— Clement  vn. 

1592.— New  edition  of  Vul- 
gate  (declared  to  be  the 
edition  of  Sixtus  v.). 


Protestant  Theology. 


The  Heidelberg  Catech- 
ism :  l.'G-),  written  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  Frederick  ill.  of  the 
Palatinate  by  Zachary  Ursinus 
(from  1561  Prof,  at  Heidel- 
berg ;  d.  1583)  and  Caspar 
Olevianus  (Prof,  at  Heidel- 
berg ;  d.  1587). 

Confessio  Helvetica  Posterior: 
1566,  sent  by  Bullinger  to 
Frederick  ill.  of  the  Palatinate. 


The  Decrees  of  the  Synod  of 
Dart :  1619,  reeo,2;nised  in  the 
Netherlands,  Switzerland,  the 
Palatinate,  and  in  1620  in 
France  ;  not  universally  recog- 
nised. 


510 


CHRONOLOGICAL   SUMMARY 


Contemporary  Eventa. 

Lutheran  Church. 

Anglican  Church. 

The  Lutheran  Church  loses  to  the 

1552.     The  42  Articles, 

Eeformed  Church— 

1605. — Hesse-Casselreformed,  under 

[1554.— Cardinal  Re- 

Landgrave Maurice  (1592-1627). 

ginald  Pole,  Papal  Le- 
gate ;  1555-58,  Bloody 

1613.— Dec.    25,    Brandenburg    re- 

persecutions         under 

formed   under  the   Elector  John 

Mary  ;  1556,  Mar.  21, 

Sigismund ;  1614,  Com/essio  Alar- 

Cranraer  burnt  at  Ox- 

chica. 

ford.] 

Reformation  restored 

under  Elizabeth. 

1559.  —  June  :    Act    of 

Uniformity,    Matthew 

Parker,  Archbishop  of 

Canterljury. 

Anti-  Trinitarians. 

Book    of    Common 

Michael  Servetvs  from  Aragon  :  1530, 

Prayer  revised  and  re- 

in   Basel  ;    1531,     l)e    TrinUaUs 

stored. 

erroribus;  153-4,  in  Lyons;  1537. 

in  Paris  ;  1540,  in  Vienr.e  ;  1553, 
Christumismi  restitutio ;  burnt  at 
Geneva,  1553. 

1562.— Jan.  23,  The  89 
A  rt  ides :  Cal vinist  doc- 

Valentinus Gentilis.  from  Calabria; 

trine  of  Predestination  ; 

beheaded  at  Berne,  1556. 

Doctrine  of  Lord's  Sup- 
per, CalvinisL 

Laelms  Socinns:  b.  1.'525,  at  Siena; 

1567.— Puritans    against 

1546,  in  Venice ;  1547,  travels  in 

Uniformity.    [Puritan- 

Switzerland,  Germany,   and  Po- 

ism ;  Reformation  from 

land  ;  d.  1562  in  Zurich. 

within  through  the 
Church  community;  in 
England  strict  accept- 
ance of  the    spiritual 

priesthood  of  all   be- 

CHRONOLOGICAL  SUMMARY 


511 


Bcfonned  Church. 


ProtefltAnt  Theologry. 


Scotland, 

1558.  —  Lords  of  the 
Congregation  ;  Pure 
Gospel  ;  King  Ed- 
ward's Prayer-Book. 


1560.  —  Meeting  of 
Estates  at  Edinburgh ; 
Scotch  Confession ; 
First  Book  of  Disci- 

Sline ;  Presbyterian 
'Overnment  by  Gen- 
eral Assemblies, 
Synods,  and  Kirk- 
Sessions  ;  Superin- 
tendents. 


John  Knox:  h.  1505, 
at  Haddington;  from 
1546,  preacher  in  St. 
Andrews ;  1547-49,  in 
the  galleys;  1553-59, 
at  Frankfort  and 
Geneva  ;  1559  —  d. 
1572,  in  Edinburgh. 


1672.  —  Convention  of 
Leith  ;  Bishops,  but 
M'ithout  episcopal 
functions  ;  Tulchans. 


1576. — Government  by 
visitors  appointed  by 
the  Assembly. 


1578.— Second  Book  of 
Discipline. 


The  Netlierlands. 

1559.  — Margaret  of  Parma 
Stadth older  ;  Granvella, 
Bp.  of  Arras. 

Erectiou     of     13     new 
bishoprics  ;  Inquisition. 


1562.  —  Confessio  BeJgica  ; 
Guido  de  Bres,  Adrien  de 
Savaria,  H.  Modetus,  G. 
Wingen ;  revised  by  Francis 
Junius,  1571. 


1566. — Compromise  in  favour 
of  Protestants. 

Riots  about  images  and 
relics. 


1567-73.— Dnke  of  Alva. 

Council  of  Blood  ;  Per- 
secution of  Protestants  ; 
18,000  slain  ;  Egmout  and 
Horn  in  1568. 


1572.— Capture  of  Brill  by 
the  Sea-Beggars  ;  William 
of  Orange. 


1576.— Nov. 
Ghent 


8,    Treaty   of 


John  Calvin:  Institutio  Re- 
ligionis  Cliristianse,  1535-^6. 
Three  editions,  each  an  en- 
largement, 1535, 1539  (-43-45), 
1559  ;  Commentaries  on  O.T. 
and  N.T.  from  1539  ;  Ue  oeter- 
na  Dei  predestinatione,  1552  ; 
Defensio  orthodoxce  fidei  de  S. 
Trinitate,  1554,  against  Ser- 
vetus. 


Henry  BulUnger,  Zwingli's  suc- 
cessor in  Zurich,  h.  1504,  at 
Bremgarten,  d.  1578,  Sept.  17  ; 
Commentaries  on  the  whole 
N.T.,  1554  ;  Compendium  re- 
lig.  Christianm;  Histoire  des 
persecutions  de  I'Eglise. 


Theodore  Beza :  h.  1519 ;  1549,  in 
Lausanne ;  1558,  Professor  and 
pastor  in  Geneva;  d.  1605. 
N.T.  translation  with  annota- 
tions, 1565  ;  Histoire  Eccles. 
des  reformateurs  au  royaume 
de  France^  1580. 


Rvdolph  Hospinian,  pastor  in 
Zurich  ;  d.  1629  ;  Deorigineet 
progres.  controv.  sacrament- 
arice,  etc. 


J.  H.  Hottinger,  Professor  ia 
Heidelberg  and  Zurich  ;  d, 
1667 ;  But,  Ecd,  N.T, 


512 


CHRONOLOGICAL  SUMMARY 


Contemporary  Events. 

Lutheran  Church. 

Anglican  Church. 

Faustus  Sodnus :  h.  1539,  at  Siena ; 

lievei  i,  and  consequent 

1559,  in  Lyons  ;  1562,  in  Zurich  ; 

objection     to     clerical 

at  Florence,  tlien  Basel,  1574-78  ; 

vestments,    cope,    and 

iu  Poland,  1579-98  ;  d.  1604.— />e 

surplice.] 

Jesu  Christo  servatore  ;  De  Statu 

primi  hominis  ante  lapsum,  1578. 

1570.  —  Thomas  Cart- 
wright  expelled  from 
Cambridge. 

1582.— Robert     Browne, 

1605.— Racovian  Catechism. 

chaplain  to  the  Duke 
of  Norfolk  :  no  union 
between  Church  and 
State ;  each  congrega- 
tion an  independent 
church.     From  1589  in 

England. 

{To  be  read  parallel  with  the  above  columns. 


Reformed  Church, 


Protestant  Theology. 


Scotland, 

1680. — Government  by 
Preabyteriea. 


The  Netherlands. 

1579. —Jan.  23,  Utrecht 
Union  of  Northern  Pro- 
vinces ;  July  26,  Declara- 
tion of  Independence. 


1584.— July  10,  William  of 
Orange  murdered;  Maurice 
of  Orange  succeeds. 


Foundation  of  Universities— 
Leyden,  1575 ;  Franecker, 
1585;  Groningen,  1612; 
Utrecht,  1638;  Harder- 
wyk,  1648. 


Caspar  Suicer,  Professor  in 
Zurich  ;  d.  1684  ;  Thesaums 
Ecclesiasticu8. 


J.  Da.Uo'us,  Prof,  at  Saumur,  d. 
at  Paris,  1670  ;  Traiti  de  VeiA- 
j)loi  des  &  Feres,  1632. 


INDEX 


Abbots,  election  of,  24. 

Absolutism,  papal,  14,  265. 

Acta  Augustana,  233. 

Address  to  the  Nobility  of  the  German 
Nation,  141,  143,  242/.,  257. 

Adelmann,  Bernard,  named  in  the 
first  Bull  against  Luther,  249  and  n. 

Adriatic,  the,  the  boundary  between 
Christian  and  Moslem,  19. 

-ffineas  Sylvius,  on  the  wealth  of 
German  burghers,  86. 

Africa,  North,  18  ;  85. 

Against  the  execrable  Bull  of  Anti- 
christ, 249. 

Against  the  thieving,  murdering 
hordes  of  Peasants,  336. 

Agricola,  John,  390. 

Agricola,  Rudolph,  58. 

Agricola,  Stephan,  353. 

Aichili,  provost -marshal  of  the 
Swabian  League,  murders  Lutheran 
pastors,  340. 

D'Ailly,  Peter,  199/.,  254. 

Alber,  Matthew,  310,  391. 

Aleander,  Jerome  (Roman  nuncio), — 
on  the  devotion  of  Germany  to 
Rome,  115  ;  at  the  Diet  of  Worms, 
261  Jf.;  his  education,  262;  his 
letters  to  Rome,  262/".  ;  his  esti- 
mate of  Charles  v.,  263  ;  his  task 
at  the  Diet  of  Worms,  263  ;  his 
address  to  the  Diet,  270 ;  drafted 
the  Ban  against  Luther,  298 ;  259, 
267 «.,  269,  271,  275/.,  279,  282, 
283  andn.,  285,  288,  291  w.,  293, 
295,  886. 

Alexander  of  Hales  on  Indulgences, 
219,  221/. 

Alpersbach,  Petreius,  66. 

Alstedt,  330. 

Altenberg,  318. 

Amsdorf,  Nicholas,  211  n.,  276,  317. 

33*  "* 


Anabaptists,  339,  866 ;  and  Human. 

ists,  156. 
Andrese,  Lauren tius,  422,  424. 
Angelico,  Fra,  49. 
Anhalt,  Prince  of,  346,  363,  373. 
Anjou,  province  of,  23. 
Anna,    Saint,    "the  Grandmother," 

cult  of,  135/.,  138. 
Annaberg,  town  of.  Indulgence-seller 

at,  213. 
Annates,  12,  17,  24/.,  245,  321. 
Anne  of  Beaujeu,  23. 
Anselm  of  Lucca,  2. 
Anthony,   Duke    of   Lorraine,   334, 

338. 
Anti-Hapsburg  feeling  in  Germany, 

350,  370,  374,  376. 
Apology  for  the  Augsburg  Confession, 

The,  367. 
Apostles'  Creed,  365,  468,  484, 
Apostolic  Succession,  403. 
Aquinas.     See  Thomas. 
Aragon,  27. 

Argyropoulos,  John,  48,  68. 
Aristotle,  a  forerunner  of  Christ,  56  ; 

influence  on  mediaeval    thinking, 

449 ;  disliked  by  the  Humanists. 

57  ;  disliked  by  Luther,  206,  469. 
Armstrong,  Edward,  quoted,  264  ?*. 
Art,  German,  and  popular  life,  62. 
Arthur,  Prince  of  Wales,  21. 
Articles:    the    Twelve,    331^.,    336, 

337  ;  the  Marburg,  353,  359  ;  the 

Stoahach,    359,   367 ;  the  Schmal- 

kald,  374,  467 «.,  468;  the  Bern, 

478. 
Artisan  life,  SOjf. ;  artiaan  capitalists 

in  England,  21. 
Artists,  German,  and  the  Reforma- 
tion, 307  ;  belonged  to  the  burgher 

class,  86. 
Artushofe,  8d. 


514 


INDEX 


Asia  Minor,  18. 

Ass,  Feast  of  the,  120. 

Astrologists  in  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  129. 

Athanasius  and  Luther,  433,  470,  471 
and  n.,  473. 

Attrition^  the  doctrine  of,  201,  219, 
222/. ;  taught  by  John  of  Palz,  an 
Augustinian  Eremite  theologian, 
138,  199,  201. 

Augsburg,  city  of,  234,  320,  322,  353, 
391  ;  the  Humanist  aVcZe  of,  60/.  ; 
the  Brethren  in,  1 52.     See  Diet. 

Augsburg  Confession  (Aiigustana), 
147/.,  363,  365/.,  396,  399,  403. 

Augsburg  Interim,  266,  390jf. 

Augsburg  Religious  Peace,  395jf. ;  in- 
ternational consequences  of,  398 w. 

Augustine,  the  papal  claim  to  uni- 
versal supremacy  and,  3  ;  influence 
on  mediaeval  theolopjy,  449  ;  dis- 
liked by  the  Humanists,  167,  185  ; 
his  influence  on  Luther,  203,  207, 
211,  433,  436. 

Augustinian  Eremites,  137/.,  146  ; 
their  theology  not  Augustine's, 
138,  199/,  229  ;  their  chapter  at 
Heidelberg,  230 ;  most  of  them 
accept  Luther's  teaching,  305. 

Augustus,  Elector  of  Saxony,  395. 

Avignon,  the  Popes  at,  5. 

Babylonian  Captivity  of  the  Church, 

241/.,  266  71..,  282  ?i.,  306. 
Ban,  the,  against  Luther,  297/.    See 

Worms,  Edict  of. 
Barclay,  Alexander,  the  Ship  of  Fools, 

17  w. 
Basel,  city  of,  810 ;  Council  of,  see 

Councils. 
Baths  in  the  Middle  Ages  served  as  a 

life-school  for  artists,  88. 
Bauernmeister,  the,  92. 
Bavaria,  the  Dukes  of,  319,  325,  870, 

376. 
Bebel,  Heinrich,  67. 
Beer,  Einbecker,  277  n.,  293. 
Beggars,  ecclesiastical,  142. 
Begging,  a  Christian  virtue,  142. 
Beguines  and   Beguine-houses,   116, 

142. 
Beham,  Hans  Sebaldus,  artist,  62. 
Beheim,    Hans,    supposed    to    have 

abducted  Luther,  295. 
Belgrade,  19. 
Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  125,  205,  209, 

433  and  n. 
Bessarion,  Cardinal,  48/ 
Bible,  translations  of  the,  into  the 


vernacular,  149/,  174,  387,  402. 
See  Scripture. 

Biblia  Fauperum,  117. 

Biel,  Gabriel,  55,  196,  199. 

Bigamy  of  Philip  of  Hesse,  380/. 

Bishops,  modes  of  electing,  8,  24. 

Black  Death,  the,  in  England,  20, 
440. 

Boccaccio,  47. 

Bohm,  Hans,  and  the  socialist  revolts, 
99/.,  135. 

Bologna,  University  of,  64  ;  a  great 
Law  School,  2 ;  city  of,  360. 

Bonaventura  on  Indulgences,  221, 
224. 

Bonzio,  Cardinal,  2. 

Books  in  the  German  language  due 
to  the  Reformation,  300. 

Bosnia,  19. 

Bourges,  Concordat  of,  11. 

Brand,  Sebastian,  author  of  Narren- 
schif,  quoted,  17  ;  on  usury,  84  : 
on  the  Niklashausen  pilgrims,  102  ; 
on  the  difl"usion  of  Scripture,  161  n. ; 
52,  58,  118. 

Brandenburg,  the  Elector  of,  Joachim 
I.  (1499-1535),  341  ;  Joachim  ii. 
(1535-1571),  Fat  old  Interim,  377, 
383,  395,  396;  Margrave  of,  George, 
326,  346,  362,  373;  Margrave 
of  Brandeuburg-Culmbach,  Albert 
Alcibiades,  383,  393;  Albert  of 
(brother  of  Joachim  i.).  Archbishop 
of  Mainz,  see  Mainz ;  Albert  of 
(brother  of  Margrave  George),  sec- 
ularises his  principality,  becomes 
Duke  of  East  Prussia  and  a  Pro- 
testant, 326  ;  province  of,  peasants 
die  of  starvation.  111  ;  secular 
administration  of  the  Church  in 
fifteenth  century,  140. 

Brask,  Johan,  Bishop  of  Linkoeping, 
423. 

Braun  fells,  Otto,  306. 

Bremen,  an  episcopal  State,  81,  320, 
373. 

Brenz,  John,  353,  391,  392. 

Breslau,  the  students'  paradise,  63, 
378. 

Brethren  of  the  Common  Lot,  the, 
51/  ;  their  relation  to  the  praying 
circles  of  the  German  Mystics,  154. 

Brethren,  the,  mediseval  evangelical 
nonconformists,  150,  152/  ;  dis- 
tributed devotional  literature,  155. 

Brethren  of  St.  Anthony,  143. 

Brethren  of  St.  James  {Jacobs- Brilder)^ 
134. 

Brissmann,  John,  306. 


INDEX 


615 


Brotherhood^  the  Evangelical,  329, 
334. 

Brotherhoods  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
the  Blessed  Virgin,  135;  of  St. 
Anna,  the  Grandmother,  136  ;  of 
the  Eleven  Tliousand  Virgins  (*S'^. 
Urs^ild's  Schilflcin),  145 ;  among 
the  artisans,  146  ;  the  Holy  Brother- 
hood {Hermandad)  of  Spain,  28. 

Briick,  Dr.  Gregory,  Chancellor  of 
Electoral  Saxony,  266%.,  276,  278, 
363,  366,  369. 

Brunswick,  the  city  of,  churches  in, 
116. 
jT^ucer,  Martin,  the  Reformer  of  Strass- 
burg,  284,  306,  310,  353,  374,  380, 
391. 

Bugenhagen,  John,  306. 

Bulls,  papal,  Exccrahilis  et  prish'nis, 
5  ;  Pastor  ^termis,  5  ;  Inter  cetera 
divince,  5  ;  this  Bull  bestowed  the 
continent  of  America  upon  Fer- 
dinand and  Isabella,  hn.  ;  Unam 
Sanctam,  Iw.,  4  ;  Exurge  Domine, 
the  first  Bull  against  Luther,  247/. ; 
Decet  Romanum,  the  second  Bull 
against  Luther,  267  w. 

Bundschuh  League,  the,  peasant  ris- 
ings under,  103jf.,  110;  the  banner, 
103, 105  ;  the  watchword  of  revolt, 
296. 

Burchard,  John,  16. 

JSiirgerrecht,  Das  christliche,  350. 

Burgmaier,  Hans,  artist,  67. 

Burgundy,  the  district  of,  21  ;  the 
Duke  of,  see  Charles  the  Bold. 

Burkhardt,  George,  of  Spelt.  See 
Spalatinus. 

Burning  the  Pope's  Bull,  251. 

Burning  heretics,  248 ;  heretical 
books,  259,  264,  299. 

Busch,  Hermann  von,  52,  67. 

Butzbach,  Johann  (a  wandering 
student),  55. 

Cadan,  peace  of,  377,  379. 

Cajetan,  Thomas  de  Vio,  Cardinal, 
232,  247,  252,  303. 

Calabria,  Greek  spoken  in,  46. 

Calvin,  John,  and  St.  Anna,  136  ;  and 
Dean  Colet,  165  ;  and  the  Augs- 
burg Confession,  365  ;  ou  the  doc- 
trine of  Scripture,  462,  465,  467  71.; 
the  impious  mysteries  of  Calvin, 
398w.  ;475,  476. 

Campeggio,  Lorenzo,  papal  nuncio, 
184,  322,  361,  370. 

Canon  Law,  based  on  the  Decretum 
of  Gratian,  2. 


Canterbury,  Archbishop  of,  12,  349. 

Capitalist  class,  rise  of  a,  83. 

Capito,  Wolfgang,  309. 

Cappel,  battle  of  (Zwingli  slain),  374, 

Caraccioli,  Marino,  papal  nuncio, 
2G2,  297. 

Carlstadt,  Andrew  Bodcnstein  of, 
21171.,  237,  249,  308;  and  the 
Wittenberg  "tumult,"  311/. ;  dis- 
penses the  Lord's  Supper  in  evan- 
gelical fashion,  313  ;  responsible 
for  the  **  Witteniberg  Ordinance,'* 
314,  316,  320,  337  ;  on  the  Lord's 
Supper,  356,  cf.  313  ;  in  Denmark, 
419. 

Castile,  consolidation  of,  27/. 

Catalonia,  27. 

Catechism  of  Dietrich  Kolde,  126. 

Catechism  of  the  Brethren,  155. 

Catechisms  of  the  Reformation  : 
Luther's  Small  Catechism,  408, 
472  ;  adopted  in  Denmark,  421  ; 
Luther's  Large  Catechism,  472 ; 
the  Heidelberg,  477,  479. 

Catholic  Church,  term  not  conceded 
to  Romanists,  404. 

Celibacy  of  the  clergy,  312,  343. 

Celtes,  Conrad,  Humanist,  67  ;  on 
the  diffusion  of  Scripture,  151. 

Chancery,  rules  of  the  Roman  (con- 
tain lists  of  prices  of  benefices), 
10. 

Charitable  foundations  placed  under 
lay  management,  143. 

Charity  in  the  Middle  Ages,  141/. 

Charles  v..  Emperor,  37,  184,  334, 
341  ;  elected  to  the  Empire,  40  ; 
crowned  at  Aachen,  262  ;  held  his 
first  Diet  at  Worms,  262/".  ;  the 
real  antagonist  of  Luther,  264  ;  a 
good  child,  263  ;  his  confession  of 
faith,  264/.,  293/  ;  his  concep- 
tion of  the  Church,  265  ;  differ- 
ences between  himself  and  the 
Diet  about  Luther,  267  n.,  270/, 
272,  276/.  ;  asks  for  Luthev'i 
condemnation,  293  ;  regrets  that 
he  did  not  burn  Luth&r,  295 ;  his 
views  of  the  religious  question  in 
Germany,  360,  389 ;  at  the  Diet  of 
Augsburg  (1530),  359/.  ;  resolves 
to  crush  the  Reformation  by  force, 
360;  finds  it  difficult  to  do  so, 
370  ;  his  idea  of  a  true  reforma- 
tion, 375 ;  conquers  the  Duke  of 
Cleves,  382 ;  makes  peace  with 
France,  383 ;  forces  the  Pope  to 
convoke  a  Council,  383 ;  defeats 
the    German    Protestants,    889/  ; 


516 


INDEX 


his  religions  compromise,  the 
Augsburg  Interim,  390  ;  forced  to 
tiee  from  Germany,  393  ;  abdicates, 
395. 

Charles  vi.  of  France,  22. 

Charles  vii.  of  France,  22. 

Charles  viii.  of  France,  26. 

Charles  the  Bold,  Duke  of  Burgundy 
23,  37,  98/.,  109. 

Cheese-hunters,  143/.,  302. 

Chieregati,  Francesco,  Papal  Nuncio, 
321. 

Christ,  the  Person  of,  Luther 
adopted  the  doctrinal  definitions 
of  the  old  Catholic  Church,  468, 
470,  472/.  ;  did  not  like  the  ter- 
minology, 471  ;  the  two  Natures 
iu,  474  ;  Luther  put  new  meaning 
into  the  old  definitions,  472,  474  ; 
with  the  Reformers,  Christ  fills  the 
whole  sphere  of  God,  460,  472./f., 
478,  480  ;  He  is  the  only  Mediator, 
476  ;  He  is  the  efficacy  and  the 
virtue  in  the  sacraments,  478  ; 
His  divinity  to  be  reached  from 
His  work,  475  ;  a  part  of  the  re- 
ligious experience,  474/.,  478. 

Christian  ii..  King  of  Denmark,  418. 

Christian  iii.,  King  of  Denmark,  420. 

Christendom,  small  extent  at  the 
time  of  the  Reformation,  18/. 

Christianity,  the  sum  of,  430  ;  how 
to  express  it,  431. 

Christopher  of  Utenheim,  Bishop  of 
Basel,  257. 

Chrysoloras,  Manuel,  47. 

Church  of  Christ,  doctrine  of  the, 
a  double   fellowship,    480 ;    three 
conceptions  of,   in   the   mediaeval 
Church,  481,  482  ;  and  priesthood 
with    the     sacraments,    482,    cf. 
438/.  ;     Luther's     difficulties     in 
conceiving  a,  483  ;    his  final  con- 
ception of,  484  ;  both  Visible  and 
Invisible,  485 ;   made   Visible  by 
the  proclamation  of  the  Word  and 
the  manifestation  of  Faith,  485^'. ; 
ministry  in  the,  486. 
Mediaeval,  Iff.,  31. 
The  Pope's  House,  11,  194,  205, 
235,  483. 
States  of  the,  32/ 
A  national  German,  36,  324. 

Churches  (buildings),  innumerable  in 
Germany,  115;  full  of  treasures, 
116. 

Churches,  Lutheran  Terri- 
torial, 343,  387  ;  principles  ac- 
cording to  which  they  were  organ- 


ised, 400/".  ;  duties  belonging  to 
the  Christian  fellowship,  401 ; 
attempted  organisations  before  the 
Peasants'  War,  401/ ;  Saxon  Visita- 
tions, 405^.  ;  Consistorial  Courts^ 
410,  412,  413,  415  ;  ecclesiastical 
circles,  411 ;  SuiKrintendcnts,  404, 
411  ;  Synods,  413. 

Civitas  Dei  of  Augustine,  2/ 

Claims  of  the  Medifeval  Papacy,  1/. 

Clergy  and  laity,  243,  443/ 

Cleves,  Duke  of,  382. 

Coburg,  Luther  at,  369. 

Cochlseus,  Johannes,  R.C.  theologian 
(tl552),  185,  368. 

Colet,  John,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  22, 
163/.  ;  travels  in  Italy,  164 ; 
lectures  at  Oxford  on  St.  Paul's 
Epistles,  164,  209 ;  rejected  the 
allegorical  interpretation  of  Scrip- 
ture, 165  ;  sermon  before  Convoca- 
tion, 165/  ;  his  idea  of  a  true 
reformation,  166 ;  dislike  to  the 
Scholastic  Theology,  167  ;  studies 
Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  169  ; 
his  views  on  the  priesthood  and 
the  sacraments,  170/ 

Collin,  Rudolph  (at  the  Marburg 
Colloquy),  353. 

Cologne,  the  city  of,  its  churches 
and  ecclesiastical  buildings,  116  ; 
Luther's  books  burnt  at,  259. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  85. 

Concord,  the  Wittenberg,  377. 

Concordats,  11,  24. 

Concubinage  of  priests,  246. 

Confession,  auricular,  218,  220. 

Confessions  of  the  Reformation, 
Confessio  Augustana  (1530)  or 
Augsburg  Confession,  364/.,  435, 
467  w.,  468,  476  ;  adopted  in  Den- 
mark, 420  ;  Confession  Tetrapoli- 
tana  (1530),  368 ;  Zurich  Articles 
(1523),  468  ?i.;  Scots  Confession 
(1560),  465,  468%.,  477,  478,  480  ; 
First  Helvetic  Confession  (1536), 

467  71.,  479;  Geneva  Confession 
(1536),  468  n.;  Second  Helvetic 
Confession  (1562),  468  ?i.,  477, 
479;  French  Confession  (1539), 
468,  479  ;  Belgic  Confession  (1561), 

468  ?i.  ;  Netherlands  Confession 
(1566),  477;  the  Instruction  of 
Bern  (1532),  478  ;  the  Thirty-nine 
Articles  (1563,  1571),  468 n.,  479; 
Formula  Concordiie,  425. 

Confraternities.  See  Brotherhood  ■ 
Consistorial  Courts,  meditcval,  41-. 
Consistories  in  the  Lutheran  Church, 


INDEX 


17 


their  beginnings,  410  ;  of  Witten- 
berg, 412-415. 

Consolidation,  the  political  idea  of 
the  Renaissance,  19,  43. 

Constance,  the  city,  309,  346,  368  ; 
Council  of.     See  Council. 

Constantinople,  19. 

Constitutiones  Johannince^  9. 

Continuity  of  the  religious  life  during 
the  Reformation  period,  122. 

ContHtio,  201,  222/. 

Copernicus,  42. 

Cordus,  Curicius,  Humanist,  255. 

Corpus  Christi  Processions,  119,  362. 

Cotta,  Fran,  195,  427. 

Council,  a  General,  the  seat  of 
authority  in  the  Church,  265  ; 
demanded,  342  ;  Charles  v.  resolves 
upon  a,  372,  383 ;  of  Basel,  6,  23, 
140,  254,  259  ;  of  Constance,  36, 
140,  226,  254,  259,  268,  290 ;  of 
Trent,  148,  225,  383,  455. 

Council,  a  German,  321,  323/.,  379. 

Cradle  hymn,  a,  121. 

Cranaeh,  Lucas,  63,  308,  369. 

Cromwell,  Thomas,  374. 

Crotus  Rubeanus  (Johann  Jaeger  of 
Dornheim),  a  Humanist,  66,  75, 
255. 

Cujus  regio  ejus  religio,  397. 

C^ij),  the,  for  the  laity,  343,  437. 

Curia,  the  Roman,  the  universal 
court  of  ecclesiastical  appeal,  14/.; 
sale  of  offices  in,  15  ;  counted  on 
the  devotion  of  the  Germans,  115; 
245,  255,  265/.,  321,  382  7i. 

Cusanus,  Cardinal  Nicholas,  57/ 

Cuspinian  of  Vienna,  Luther  writes 
to  him  from  Worms,  283. 

Dalmatia,  19. 

Dante  and  the  Renaissance,  47. 

Dantzig,  churches  in,  116. 

Decretals,  forged,  2  ;  Luther  studies 
the,  235. 

Decretum  of  Gratian,  2,  44. 

Denmark,  Reformation  in,  388,  418, 
420. 

Deusdedit,  a  canonist,  2. 

Deutsche  Theologie,  155. 

Deventer,  the  school  at,  51,  64. 

Devotional  literature  circulated  by 
the  Brethren,  155. 

Diet,  the  feudal  Council  of  the 
German  Empire,  of  Worms  (1521), 
262/.,  267,  278,  284 /f.,  296/:, 
304,  341  ;  of  Niirnberg  (1522-23), 
821,  403  ;  of  Speyer  (l5'24),  324, 
403;  of  Augsburg  (1525),  341  ;  of 


Speyer  (1526),  341,  398,  403,  404, 
415  ;  of  Si)eyer  (1529),  345,  396  ; 
of  Augsburg  (1530),  360,  363/.  ; 
of  Niirnberg  (1532),  374/  ;  of 
Augsburg  (1555),  395/ 

Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  169. 

Dispensations,  fees  for,  13,  382  to. 

Disputations,  university,  311/. 

Dominican  Order,  70,  137,  306,  321. 

Dominicans  demand  the  destruction 
of  Hebrew  literature,  70/. 

Donation  of  Constantino,  49. 

Dormi  secure,  117. 

Dringenberg,  Ludwig,  52. 

Drinking  habits  of  the  Germans, 
87/ 

Duniceld,  disputed  succession  in  tlie 
See  of,  10. 

Durer,  Albert,  31,  62,  63,  88,  90; 
appeals  to  Erasmus,  188 ;  on 
Luther's  piety,  191  ;  his  admira- 
tion for  Luther,  256 ;  giief  at 
report  of  Luther's  death,  296. 

Eberlin  of  Gunzberg,  John,  con- 
troversial writer,  304  f.,  310. 

Ebernberg,  the,  castle  of  Francis  v., 
Sickingen,  262,  273. 

Eccius  dedolatus,  249  ?i. 

Eck,  John,  Official  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Trier,  278,  280,  281,  283,  285, 
290. 

Eck,  John  Mayr  of,  professor  at 
Ingolstadt,  235/,  247,  303,  368. 

Economic  changes  at  the  close  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  43,  80/.,  108/ 

Egypt,  18. 

Ehrenberg,  the  Pass  of,  393. 

Eisenach,  193,  198. 

Eisleben,  193,  385. 

Electors,  the  German,  35,  270; 
accustomed  to  exercise  the  jus 
ejnscopale,  140. 

Elizabeth,  Queen  of  England,  6n., 
398  ?t. 

Elizabeth,  St.,  195,  198. 

Elsass  and  the  Peasants'  War,  834, 
338. 

Emmerich,  school  at,  52. 

Eniser,  Jerome,  185,  337. 

Emperor,  the  Vicar  of  God,  31. 

Empire,  German,  elective,  35 ;  at- 
tempts to  frame  a  Common 
Council  (Reichsregiment),  36/.  ; 
extent  of  the,  36. 

England,  consolidation  of,  under  the 
Tudors,  7,  20. 

Eoban  of  Hesse  (Helius  EobaBU 
Hessus),  66,  255. 


618 


INDEX 


Episcopate  weakened  by  the  Papacy, 
14. 

Epistoloe  ohscurorum  virorum,  67, 
72/.,  74. 

Erasmici,  255. 

Erasmus,  52,  67,  71,  74,  156,  164, 
171,  266  7i.,  273,  288,  299;  a 
typical  Christian  Humanist,  172 ; 
visit  to  England,  172,  177  ;  his 
conception  of  a  reformation,  172^.; 
his  Christian  Philosophy,  173 ; 
desire  for  the  Scriptures  in  the 
vernacular,  174  ;  Sancte  Socrates^ 
ora  pro  nobis,  175,  253  ;  dislike 
to  Augustinian  theology,  167,  185  ; 
writings  in  aid  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, 179  ;  on  saint  worship,  180  ; 
on  the  monastic  life,  180/.,  estimate 
of  Luther,  185,  253,  301. 

Erfurt,  University  of,  56,  64  ;  its 
foundation,  195  ;  theology,  196. 

Erfurt  Tumult,  the,  305. 

Eric,  King  of  Denmark,  417. 

Evangelical  Brotherhood,  329,  334. 

Evangelical  life  at  the  close  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  124. 

Excommunication  of  princes  and  its 
consequences,  6  and  n.,  398  ». 

Exile  at  Avignon,  papal,  5. 

Fagius,  Paul,  391. 

Faith,  the  religious  faculty  which 
throws  itself  upon  God,  429,  436, 
438,  458  ;  an  active  and  living 
thing,  431 ;  rests  on  the  historic 
Christ,  446 ;  good  works  are  the 
sign  of,  431 ;  is  the  gift  of  God, 
429,  430 ;  depends  on  promise, 
441,  460 ;  enables  us  to  see  the 
meaning  of  the  historic  work  of 
Christ,  446 ;  what  it  lays  hold  of 
in  repentance,  452 ;  is  personal 
trust  in  a  personal  Saviour,  203, 
459  ;  the  conceptions  of  Faith  and 
of  Scripture  always  correspond, 
461 ;  is  needed  to  apprehend  in- 
fallibility, 464,  465,  466  ;  creates  a 
natural  unity  in  Scripture,  455, 
459 ;  two  kinds  of,  429,  445 ; 
mediaeval  conception  of,  afrigida 
opinio,  429 ;  is  intellectual,  430, 
461  ;  and  reason  in  the  Scholastic 
Theology,  469.     See  Justification. 

Family  religion  at  the  close  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  121#. 

Famine  years  in  Germany,  110  jf. 

Fastnachtspiele,  54,  90. 

Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  6,  6,  27,  29, 
30. 


Ferdinand  of  Austria,  278,  319,  322, 

342,  360,  394. 
Festivals,  Church,  119/.,  141,  246. 
Feudalism  in  England,  20. 
Five  Nations,  the,  19/. 
Five  powers  of  Italy,  31/,    • 
Florence,  32/ 

Florentius  Radewynsohn,  51. 
Folk-songs  of  Germany,  67,  90,  94, 

99,  109. 
Fondaco  dei  Tedeschi  at  Venice,  83. 
Forest  laws,  severity  of,  108. 
Forgeries,  papal,  2,  235. 
France,  7,  18,  19,  20,  22/.,  31  ;  not 

a  compact  nation,  25  ;  trade  in,  25. 
Francis  of  Assisi,  125,  142,  158,  203, 

433,  435. 
Francis  i.  of  France,  25,  184,   265, 

342,  345. 
Frank,  Sebastian,  his  chronicle,  107. 
Frankfurt-on-the-Main,  40,  87. 
Frederick,    Elector  of  Saxony.    See 

Saxony, 
Frederick  iii.,  Emperor,  37. 
Frederick      of     Schleswig-Holstein, 

King  of  Denmark,  419. 
Free  Nobles  of  Germany,  83. 
Frundsberg,  General,  279. 
Friends  of  God  {Qottesfreunde\  61, 

154. 
Frigid  a  ojjinio,  429. 
Fritz,  Joss,  foundti  of  the  Bundschuh 

League,  104,  135. 
Froben,    the  Basel   printer ;  printed 

Luther's  works,  256 ;  printed   the 

copies  of  Luther's  works  produced 

at  the  Diet  of  Worms,  281  n. 
Froscher,  M.   Sebastian,  at  the  Leip- 
zig Disputation,  237,  238. 
Fugger,    the,    family,    84,    361;   in 

possession  of  mines,  85. 
Fulda,  monastery  of,  46,  75. 

Gaisraeyer,   Michael,    leader  in   the 

Peasants'  War,  330. 
Galileo,  42. 

Gascoigne,  George,  11. 
Geiler  of  Keysersberg,  53,  69,   118, 

134,  310. 
Geographical  discoveries,  43,  84/. 
George  of  Trebizond,  47/. 
George,  Duke  of  Saxony.  See  Saxony. 
Germany,  political  condition  at  the 

close  of   the    Middle    Ages,    30 ; 

divided  condition  and  desire  for 

unity,     35 ;    attempts    at    unity, 

36/. ;  connections  with  Italy,  50  ; 

devotion  to  the  Roman  See,  116/,; 

multitude  of  ecclesiastical  build- 


IND£X 


619 


ings  in,  115/".  :  grievances  against 
Rome,  233,"  243,  245,  270,  288, 
321,  342  ;  divided  into  two  separate 
camps,  338 ;  a  national  Cliurch 
for,  324,  335  ;  321,  323./;,  379. 

Gerson,  Jean,  Luther's  debt  to,  209 
and  n,,  254. 

Gilds  in  mediaeval  towns,  43,  81. 

Ginocchino  di  Fiore,  47,  158. 

Glapion,  Jean,  confessor  to  Charles  v., 
266  w.,  273,  285. 

Olossa  ordinaria,  202. 

Golden  Rose,  the,  234,  260. 

Goslar,  374. 

Gospel,  the  Little,  135. 

Gotha,  353. 

Gottesfreunde,  51,  154, 

Gottingen,  374. 

Graecia  Magna,  46. 

Gran  in  Hungary,  9. 

Granada,  27,  29. 

Gratian's  Decretum,  2,  44, 

Gratius,  Ortuin,  67. 

Chrauhund,  the,  95. 

Greece,  19. 

Greek,  the  knowledge  of  Greek  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  46 ;  spoken  in 
Sicily  and  Calabria,  46  ;  printing 
press  in  Paris,  26. 

Greeks,  learned,  in  Italy,  47. 

Gregory.     See  Popes. 

Gregory  of  Pavia,  a  canonist,  2. 

Grimma,  town  in  Electoral  Saxony, 
201,  205,  316,  318. 

Grocyn,  22,  164. 

Groot,  Gerard,  51. 

Grunbach,  Argula,  a  learned  Lutheran 
lady,  307. 

Gruniger,  a  Strassburg  publisher, 
300. 

Gude  and  godlie  Ballates,  the,  123  n. 

Guelderland,  382. 

Gustaf  Ericsson,  King  of  Sweden, 
421 ;  adopts  the  Reformation,  422/. 

Haingerichte,  331  jf. 

Hall,  a  town  in  Swabia,  858,  391. 

Hamburg,  374. 

Eanseatic  League,  82/. 

Hapsburg,    House  of,    85,  37,    845, 

350,  859,  370,  376,  398. 
Hebrew,  the  study  of,  68. 
Hebrew  books  to  be  destroyed,  69/. 
Hedio,  Caspar,  353. 
Hegenau,  Conference  at,  379. 
Hegius,  Alexander,  52,  64. 
Heilbronn,  347. 
Held,  Chancellor,  379. 
Holding,  Michael,  890. 


Henrique,  Don,  of  Portugal,  84. 

Henry  iv.  of  Castile,  28. 

Henry  vii.,  King  of  England,  20/. 

Henry  viii..  King  of  England,  21/., 
26,  184,  324,  378,  388  ;  on  Luther's 
condemnation,  298  ;  orders  Lu- 
ther's books  to  be  burnt,  299. 

Henry,  Duke  of  Saxony,  ^ee  Saxony, 

Hermandad,  the,  in  Spain,  28/. 

Herredag,  419. 

Herzegovina,  19. 

Hesse,  the  district,  347,  386,  415. 

Hierarchies,  celestial  and  terrestrial, 
169. 

Hoc  est  Corpus  Meum,  358. 

Hochstratten,  Jacob,  70/. 

Hohenstaufen  Emperors,  the,  1. 

Holbein,  Hans,  artist,  portrait  of 
Erasmus,  177  ;  57,  62. 

Holy  days,  ecclesiastical,  141,  246, 
343. 

Holy  Roman  Empire,  31/. 

Hoinberg,  Synod  at,  415. 

Homoousius,  word  not  liked  by 
Luther,  471. 

Honius,  Christopher,  theory  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  355. 

Humanists,  the  Christian,  158/".  ; 
weakness  of  their  position,  186/"., 
299  ;  their  ideas  of  a  reformation, 
190. 

Humanists  in  France,  26. 

Humanists,  German,  39,  57 ;  called 
Poets  or  Orators,  64 ;  hatred  of 
Aristotle,  57  ;  band  together  to 
defend  Reuchlin,  68,  71/. ;  societies 
of,  in  German  cities,  60/.  ;  write 
in  praise  of  St.  Anna,  136  ;  in  the 
German  universities,  63/.,  19t5  ; 
religious  eclecticism  among,  6.')  ; 
with  Luther  after  the  Leipzig  l^is- 
putation,  239,  254/.  ;  disliked 
Augustinian  theology,  325  ;  how 
far  responsible  for  the  Peasants' 
War,  328. 

Humanists,  Italian,  22,  115 ;  rela- 
tions with  Savonarola,  160. 

Hundred  Years'  War,  22. 

Hussite  propaganda,  98,  196,  238, 
309,  325. 

Hutten,  Ulrich  v.,  69,  67,  267  n., 
269,  273,  284 ;  youth  and  educa- 
tion,  75/.  ;  passion  for  German 
unity,  76  ;  admiration  for  Luther, 
77  ;  at  the  Ebernberg,  262. 

Hymns,  evangelical,  in  the  Mediaeval 
Church,  121/.,  125;  Reformation 
collections  of,  387,  402  ;  in  praise 
of    the   Blessed  Virgin,    186 ;   of 


520 


INDEX 


St.  Anna,  135  ;  of  St.  Ursula,  145  ; 
pilgrimage,  128,  132. 

Images  in  churches,  312. 

Immaculate  Conception,  the,  135,  138. 

Imperialism,  intellectual,  168. 

Jndese  expurgatorius,  185. 

In  dulcijubilo,  122  f. 

Indulgence,  an,  for  the  Niklashausen 
chapel,  100  ;  for  the  church  of  All 
Saints  at  Wittenberg,  130  ;  for  a 
bridge  at  Torgau,  259. 

Indulgence  money  went  to  found 
Wittenberg  University,  206  ;  had 
the  effect  of  an  endowment,  224  ; 
245,  259. 

Indulgence-sellers,  213,  226. 

Indulgences,  helped  to  create  a  capi- 
talist class,  83  ;  fostered  pilgrim- 
ages, 128  ;  the  theory  and  practice 
of,  216  ff.  ;  earlier  abuses  of,  219, 
223  ;  did  they  give  a  remission  of 
guilt,  225  ;  248,  306. 

Industry  and  trade  in  France,  25  ; 
in    England,    21 ;    in    Germany, 

Innsbruck,  393. 

Inquisition    in    Spain,    29/.,    266, 

267  w. 
Instruction,    the,    of    Frederick     of 

Saxony,  316. 
Instructio7i  of  the  Synod  at   Bern, 

478. 
Instruction   drafted   by    the    Saxon 

Visitors,  410. 
Insurrections,  in   England,   20,   21  ; 

in  France,  23  ;  in  Spain,  28,  30. 
Interdict,  439/. 
Interest  on  money,  84. 
Interim,   the   A^igsburg,  390/".,  the 

Leipzig,  391  n. 
Interim,  Fat  Old,  396. 
Isabella  of  Castile,  5,  27  jf. 
Isidorian  (pseudo-)  Decretals,  2. 
Isny,  347. 
Italy,   political  condition   of,    32/., 

30. 

Jacobs- Br  Uder,  134, 

Jaeger  of  Dornheim,  Johann  (Crotus 

Rubeanus),  66,  75,  255. 
Jak  Upland,  302. 
James  iv.  of  Scotland,  21. 
Jesus  the  Judge,  not  the  Mediator, 

134.     See  Christ. 
Jews,  in  Spain,  29  ;  persecuted,  69  ; 

their  literature  to   be  destroyed, 

70/ 
John,  Elector  of  Saxony.  See  Saxony. 


John  Frederick,  Elector  of  Saxony. 
See  Saxony. 

Jonas,  Justus  (Jodocus  Koch  of  Nord- 
lingen),  255,  273/.,  275,  312,  385, 
411. 

Joss  Fritz,  leader  in  the  Bundschuh 
League,  104,  135. 

Junker  Georg,  297,  317. 

Jurisprudence  of  the  Renaissance,  44. 

Jurists,  French,  of  the  Renaissance, 
26. 

Jus  episcopale,  exercised  by  secular 
rulers  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
140/.,  147,  412  ;  liea  in  the  Chris 
tian  magistracy,  401,  412,  413. 

Justification  by  Faith,  a  divine 
act  and  therefore  continuous,  447  ;• 
corresponds  to  the  absolution  by 
the  priest,  448  ;  word  used  with 
different  meanings,  448  ;  mediaeval 
theory  of,  depends  on  initial  grace, 
450 ;  is  seen  in  the  action  of 
the  sacraments,  and  especially  in 
penance,  450 ;  Reformation  doc- 
trine of,  447,  451  ;  Chemnitz  on 
the,  451 ;  reformation  and  medi- 
aeval theories  contrasted,  452. 

Justinian,  Code  of,  44  ;  390. 


Kalands,  the,  146. 
Kampen,  Stephen,  305. 
Karben,  Victor  v.,  70. 
Karsthans,  302. 
Katharine  of  Aragon,  21. 
Kempton,  Abbey  lands  of,  102,  103. 
Kessler,  Johann,  of  St.  Gallen,  317. 
Knight  of  Christ  (Erasmus),  301. 
Knox,  John,  349. 

Koburgers,    the,   printers    in  Augs- 
burg, 151,  155. 

Lachmann,  Johann,  310. 
Lacordaire    on    Protestant    idea    of 

Scripture,  457. 
Laity  and  clergy,  243,  443. 
Lambert,  Francis,  337  n.,  415. 
Landsknechts,    40,     77,    106,    109, 

110  w. 
Latin,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  46,  51 ; 

hymns    sung    in    school,    51,  53 ; 

Luther's  studies  in,  197. 
Latin  War,  the,  56. 
League  of  the  Public  Weal  (France), 

23. 
League,     the    Schmalkald,     878/., 

376,  880. 
League,  the  Swabian,  323,  330,  834, 

377. 


INDEX 


521 


Leagaes  of  Protestants  in  Germany, 
325,  347,  350,  373. 

Leagues  of  Romanists  in  Germany, 
824,  326,  341. 

Learning,  the  New,  22,  76,  159, 
165  ;  in  France,  26 ;  in  Germany, 
50,  67,  67,  68;  how  used  by 
Erasmus,  179. 

Leipzig,  The  Disputation  at,  61,  77, 
236/:,  252,  275,  325,  385;  be- 
ginning of  historical  criticism  of 
institutions,  239  ;  made  the  Ger- 
man Humanists  support  Luther, 
239. 

Leisnig  Ordinance,  401. 

Leitzkau,  Luther  at,  166,  213. 

Leo  Alberti,  architect,  49. 

Leon,  27. 

Liberty  of  a  Christian  Afan,  192, 
240/. 

Libraries,  the  Vatican,  49  ;  of  San 
Marco,  Florence,  49  ;  of  Cardinal 
Cusanus,  58;  of  a  parish  priest,  409. 

Lindau,  346,  368. 

Link,  Wenceslas,  of  Niirnberg,  256. 

Literature.     See  Popular  Literature. 

Localis,  202. 

Lollards,  97,  171,  302. 

Loriti,  Heinrich  (Glareanus),  67. 

Louis  XI.  of  France,  23,  25. 

Lou  vain,  185. 

Lund,  Archbishop  of,  379. 

Luneberg,  Dukes  of,  341,  346,  362, 
363,  373,  386. 

Luther,  Hans,  193. 

Luther,  Magdalena,  369. 

Luther,  Margarethe,  193. 

Luther,  Martin,  on  wandc7'ing  stu- 
dents, 54 ;  on  John  Wessel,  58  ; 
the  society  to  which  he  spoke,  113  ; 
criticism  of  prevalent  preaching, 
118  ;  fondness  for  St.  Anna,  136  ; 
on  Brotherhoods,  146  ;  on  begging, 
143;  debt  to  the  Mystics,  155; 
religious  atmosphere  in  which  he 
was  reared,  157  ;  and  Savonarola, 
163  ;  and  Dean  Colet,  165,  170  ; 
and  Erasmus,  167,  175/.,  179; 
why  he  succeeded  as  a  Reformer, 
189jf.  ;  an  embodiment  of  personal 
piety,  191  ;  his  slow  advance,  192  ; 
embodied  the  Reformation,  193  ; 
youth  and  education,  193 jf.  ;  a 
Poor  Scholar,  195  ;  at  Erfurt  Uni- 
versity, 195/.  ;  influenced  by  pic- 
tures, 198  ;  in  the  convent,  199/., 
426/  ;  his  teachers  in  theology, 
199/.,  223;  conversion,  203;  at 
Wittenberg,  205/  ;  sent  to  Rome, 


207  ;   early  lectures  on   theology, 

208  ;  teaches  Aristotle's  Dialectic, 
206 ;  becomes  a  great  preacher, 
207,  212  ;  issues  his  Theses,  216/. ; 
his  Resolutiones,  230/;  summoned 
to  Rome,  232 ;  appears  before 
Cardinal  Cajetan,  232  ;  interview 
with  Miltitz,  235  ;  at  the  Leipzig 
Disputation,  236/.  ;  burns  the 
Pope's  Bull,  250/.  ;  the  represen- 
tative of  Germany,  252/. ;  writings 
translated  into  Spanish,  269,  388  ; 
writings  in  Great  Britain,  388; 
writings  burnt  in  the  Netherlands, 
271,  and  at  Cologne,  259;  at 
Oppenheim,  274 ;  at  Worms, 
275/.  ;  first  appearance  before  the 
Diet  of  Worms,  278 ;  description 
of  his  person,  279/  ;  second  ap- 
pearance before  the  Diet,  284/.; 
rumours  that  he  would  recant, 
286  ;  attitude  in  speaking,  288 ; 
last  words  at  the  Diet,  291  n.  ; 
last  scene  in  the  Diet,  291/  ;  con- 
ferences after  the  Diet,  294  ;  report 
that  he  had  been  murdered,  295  ; 
Ban  against,  297/  ;  in  the  Wart- 
burg,  297  ;  the  hero  of  the  popular 
literature,  301 ;  his  teaching  spreads, 
305/.,  322;  back  in  Wittenberg, 
316/. ;  hopes  of  a  National  Church 
of  Germany,  326  ;  how  far  respon- 
sible for  the  Peasants'  War,  327/ ; 
how  the  war  attected  him,  337, 
338  ;  and  Zwingli,  347/.  ;  at  Mar- 
burg, 352/.  ;  his  doctrine  of  the 
Sacrament  of  the  Suppt  r,  357  ;  his 
letters  from  Coburg,  369  ;  declared 
that  the  Turks  must  be  driven 
back,  374  ;  his  idea  of  a  reforma- 
tion, 275 ;  and  the  bigamy  of 
Philip  of  Hesse,  380  ;  his  death, 
384/  ;  ideas  of  ecclesiastical 
organisation,  400/.  ;  suggested  did 
not  prescribe,  402  ;  proposed  the 
visitations,  405/.  ;  preface  to  the 
Small  Catechism,  408 ;  influence 
in  Denmark,  419  ;  in  Sweden,  422, 
424  ;  his  Reformation  based  not  on 
doctrine,  but  on  religious  experi 
ence,  426/.  ;  on  the  two  kinds  ot 
faith,  429,  430/,  445  ;  at  Ziesar, 
435  ;  on  the  priesthood  of  believers, 
440 ;  on  clergy  and  laity,  240, 
441  ;  on  Simple  Stories  in  the 
Bible,  460;  and  the  EpisUe  of 
James,  iQ2n.  ;  on  theological  ter- 
minology, 471 ;  his  doctrine  of  Uif 
Church,  484. 


522 


INDEX 


Lyra,   Nicholas  de,   117,    196,   209, 
456  n. 

Machiavelli    on    the    condition    of 

Italy,  31. 
Magdeburg,  school  at,  53  ;  Ordiimnce, 

401  ;  beginning  of  the  Reformation 

in,  307  ;  194,  198,  384. 
Magistry,  the  Christian,  possess  the 

jus  episcopale,  147,  401. 
Maid  who  lost  her  shoe,  There  toas  a, 

313. 
Mainz,   Albert,  Archbishop  of,  187, 

213,  229,  270,  293,  295,  296,  334, 

341,  378. 
Mansfeld,  Counts  of,  193,  295,  341, 

373,  385,  386. 
Mansfeld,  district  of,  193,  198. 
Manuel,  Juan,   Spanish   ambassador 

at  Rome,  265,  272. 
Mcirhurg  Articles,  353. 
Marburg  Colloquy,  352  jf. 
Margaret  Tudor,  21. 
Margaret  of  York,  Duchess  of  Bur- 
gundy, 21. 
Mariolatry,  135. 
Marlianus,  Bishop  of  Puy,  185. 
Marrani,  269. 

Marriage  of  ecclesiastics,  343. 
Marsiglio  Ficino,  48,  158 ;  a  disciple 

of  Savonarola,  160. 
Martiniani,  255. 
Mary  of  Burgundy,  37. 
Mass,   the,    propitiatory  sacrifice   in 

the,  312,  354. 
Mastersingers,  the,  and  the  Reforma- 
tion, 310, 
Matthias  Corvinus,  6,  9. 
Maurice  of  Saxony,  382,  384  and  n. , 

389,  393,  394. 
Maximilian,    Emperor,    31,    37,    39, 

206,  232  ;  the  Humanist  Emperor, 

39,   67,   184  ;   death,   40,   261  ;    in 

folk-song,  67  ;  and  the  Swiss,  111  ; 

and  the  Landsknechts,  40,  110  ri. 
Mediaeval  Church,  struggle  with  the 

Empire,  1/.^ 
Mediaeval  Empire,  30/. 
Mediaeval  learning,  55/. 
Medioi,  the,  rulers  in  Florence,  32  ; 

Lorenzo    de,    49 ;    relations    with 

Savonarola,  162. 
Medii  fructus,  12/. 
Melanchthon,  156,  273,  308,  313  f., 

316,  350,  353,  364,  380,  402. 
Memmingen,  333/.,  337,  346,  351, 

368. 
Marsilius  of  Padua,  306  to.,  333. 
Meissen.  208,  234. 


Michelangelo,  50. 

Middle  class  in  England,  20. 

Mil.m,  32/. 

Miltitz,  Charles  v.,  234. 

]\linkwitz,  Hans  von,  277. 

Mirabilia  Homce,  131, 

Miracle  Plays,  119. 

Modrus  in  Hungary,  9. 

Moldavia,  19. 

Monasteries  under  secular  control  in 

Switzerland,  349. 
Monastic     life,     Erasmus    on    the, 

180  /.  ;    Luther    on     the,     211  ; 

Eberlin  on  the,  304. 
Money  exactions  by  the  Papacy,  11, 

244/.,  268,  304. 
Monks  join  the  Lutheran  movement, 

305/ 
Monte  Cassino,  the  Abbey  of,  46. 
Morals,  clerical,  at  the  close  of  the 

Middle  Ages,  137/,  190,  246. 
More,  Sir  Thomas,  178,  186,  328. 
Mosellanus,    Peter,   at    the    Leipzig 

Disputation,  237/. 
Moslems,  18/.,  26. 
Miihlberg,  battle  of,  389. 
Muhlhausen,  battle  of,  330,  334. 
Municipal    interference    in    ecclesi- 
astical affcxirs,  141,  414. 
Munster,  Sebastian,  chronicler,  170. 
Munster,  town  on  the  Ems,  52. 
Miinzer,  Thomas,  people's  priest  at 

Zwickau,  314,  330,  334,  336. 
Murad  i.,  19. 
Murmellius,  Johann,  52. 
Murner,  Thomas,  185,  303. 
Musculus,  Wolfgang,  391. 
Mutianic  Host,  68. 
Mutianus  (Mut,  Mutti,  Mudt,  Mutta), 

Conrad,  52,  64,  185,  255. 
Myconius    (Mecum),    Frederick,    on 

family  religion,  124,  127,  156  ;  on 

the  Indulgence-seller,  213  ;  on  the 

Theses,   230  ;  at  Worms,  289  n.  ; 

305,  309,  353. 
Mystics,  prayer  circles  among  the, 

153  ;  Luther's  debt  to  the,  209  w.  \ 

256. 

Naples,  32/ 

Narrenschiff,  17,  102. 

JSTathin,     John,     Luther's    teacher, 

199/,  457. 
National   Church  for  Germany,  86, 

338,  389. 
National  literature,  44. 
Naumberg,    conference    of    German 

Protestants  at  (1555),  396, 
Navarre,    seized    by    Ferdinand    ol 


INDEX 


623 


Aragon  in  confsequeTice  of  a  papal 
excomnmnicatiou,  6  and  n.,  'J9. 

Neopagauisni,  48. 

Nopotism,  papal  and  kingly,  9. 

Neukarsthans,  306  n. 

New  and  Old  God,  the,  303. 

Nicene  Creed,  365,  468. 

Niklasliauseu,  a  pilgrimage  chapel, 
100. 

Nobility,  position  of,  in  England,  20  ; 
in  France,  25  ;  in  Spain,  29. 

Nobility  of  the  German  Nation, 
Address  to  the,  14,  242. 

Nordlingen,  347. 

Normandy,  26. 

Nurnbevg,  88,  234,  320,  346,  347, 
353,  363,  373,  391  ;  Humanists 
in,  60,  256  ;  the  Brethren  in,  152  ; 
population  of,  87  ;  retained  its 
patrician  constitution,  81. 

Niitzel,  Caspar,  256. 

Occam,   William  of,    55,   196,   199, 

254. 
Odense,  Danish  National  Assembly 

at,  419. 
(Ecolampadius    (Johann    Hussgen), 

306,  310,  353. 
CElhafen,  Sixtus,  deputy  from  Niirn- 

berg  to  Worms,  284,  292. 
Oppenheim,  Charles  v.  at,  271 ;  Luther 

at,  274. 
Orchan  seizes  Gallipoli,  19. 
Ordinances     for     regulating     public 

worship,    404,    414  ;    Wittenberg 

Ordinance,    315  /.,    401;    Leisuig, 

401;  Magdeburg,  401. 
Ordinary,  the  Pope's  right  to  act  as, 

24. 
Osiander,  Andrew,  310,  353,  391. 
Ottoman  Turks,  19. 

Pack,  Otto  von,  344. 

Palz,  John  of,  a  defender  of  Indul- 
gences, 138,  223. 

Pantaleone,  H.,  on  the  state  of  the 
peasants,  107. 

Papacy,  its  claim  to  universal  supre- 
macy, 1  ;  an  Italian  power,  7 ; 
superior  to  common  morality,  7. 

Fapal  Tickets,  227,  231. 

Paper,  effects  of  the  invention  of,  45. 

Pappenheim,  Ulrich  ron,  277. 

Paris,  University  of,  12  ;  Luther's 
writings  in,  388. 

Passau,  conference  of  German  princes 
at,  393. 

}'assion  Plays,  119. 

Passiojial  Christi et  Anti-Ckristi,  308. 


Pastoral  theology,  manual  of,  117. 

Pastors,  Lutheran,  hung,  341. 

Pafer  Patrice,  title  given  to  Luther, 
255. 

Patricians  in  towns,  80. 

Patiizzi,  master  of  ceremonies  in 
Kome,  16. 

Pearl  of  the  Passion,  the,  135. 

Peasantry,  the,  in  England,  21;  in 
France,  25  ;  in  Germany,  89  ff.  ; 
their  condition  of  life,  90  ff.  ;  their 
diversions,  93 ;  revolts  by  the, 
95  ff.',  causes  of  their  revolts, 
106^.;  Swiss,  free  themselves,  44; 
103,  105,  106,  109,  111. 

Peasants'  War,  296,  325,  326  ff., 
342,  386 ;  how  far  was  Luther 
responsible  for  the,  327,  S35  ff.  ; 
how  far  Humanist  Utopias,  328 ; 
began  at  Stiihlingen,  329. 

Pellicanus,  Theobold,  310. 

Peloponnese,  19. 

Penance,  sacrament  of,  201,  219, 
220. 

Penances,  218. 

Penitentiaries,  218/. 

Petrarch  and  the  Renaissance,  46/. 

Petri,  Glaus  and  Laurentius,  the 
Reformers  of  Sweden,  421  ff. 

Petzensteiner,  Brother,  275. 

Peutinger,  Dr.,  Deputy  from  Augs- 
burg to  Worms,  279,  284,  289, 
291 71. 

Pfefferkorn,  John,  69/. 

Pflug,  Julius  von,  390. 

Philip,  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  his 
peasants  did  not  revolt,  331  ;  helps 
John  of  Saxony,  334;  proposed  a  de- 
mocratic constitution  lor  the  Church 
of  Hesse,  337  w.,  415/.;  a  leader 
among  the  Protestant  princes,  325, 
341  ;  deceived  by  Pack,  344  ;  signed 
the  Protests,  346,  371  ;  arranges  for 
the  Marburg  Colloquy,  352  ;  ad- 
mires Zwingli,  350 ;  further  at- 
tempts to  unite  the  Protestants, 
359  ;  signs  the  Augsburg  Confes- 
sion, 363,  368  ;  supposed  to  be 
ready  for  war,  369  ;  at  Schnial- 
kalden,  373  ;  aids  Duke  of 
Wurtemburg,  376 ;  his  bigamy, 
380  ff.  ;  tempted  by  Charles  v., 
383  ;  surrenders  and  is  imprisoned, 
389  ;  liberated,  394  ;  atNaumberg, 
396. 

Pico  della  Mirandolo,  48,  64  ;  ft 
disciple  of  Savonarola,  160  ;  pro- 
})osed  to  become  a  Dominican,  161; 
buried  in  San  Marco,  Florence,  162. 


524 


INDEX 


Pictures,      the,      which      influenced 

Luther,  198. 
Pictures  in  churches,  312. 
Pilgrim  guide-books,  131/.,  226. 
Pilgrim  songs,  128  w.,  132  /.  and  n., 

194. 
Pilgrimage  places,! 94  ;  Niklashausen, 

100  ff'  ;  near  Mansfeld,  127  ;  St. 

Michael's  Mount,  128  ;  Wilsnack, 

129  ;  the  Holy  Land,  130  ;  Rome, 

131/.  ;  Compostella,  131/: 
Pilgrimages,  epidemic  of,  100,  128  ; 

of  children,  128,  129. 
Pirkheimer,  Willibald,  60/.,  249  and 

n.,  309. 
Platonic  Academies,  48. 
Platonism,  Christian,  48,  64. 
Platter,  Thomas,  a  wandering  student, 

55. 
F/enaria,  149. 
Plethon,  Gemistos,  48. 
Podiebrod,  George,  6, 
Pcence  eternce  et  temporales,  221  /., 

225. 
Poggio  Bracciolini,  49. 
Poliziano,     Angelo,     a    disciple    of 

Savonarola,  162. 
Pollich,  Dr.,  205,  207. 
Popes— Nicholas    i.    (8.58-867),    2 ; 

Gregory     vii.      (1073-1085),     2; 

Innocent     IV.     (1243-1254),     4; 

Urban      ir.      (1088-1099),      224; 

Boniface    viii.     (1294-1303),    4; 

Clement  v.  (1305-1314),  12  ;  John 

XXII.  (1316-1334),  9.   10,   11,  12, 

13  ;  Nicholas  v.  (1447-1455)  49 ; 

Boniface    ix.     (1389-1404),     16  ; 

Eugenius    iv.    (1431-1447),    23  ; 

Pius  II.   (1458-1464),  5,  6;  Paul 

II.    (1464-1471),    6;    Sixtus     iv. 

(1471-1484),  7,  29;  Innocent  viii. 

(1484-1492),   34;   Alexander    vi. 

,1492-1503),  5,  12,  16,  34  ;  Julius 

II.  (1503-1513),  6,  34,  49  ;  Leo  x. 

(1513-1521),  5, 16,  22,25,  34,  187, 

229,  231,  240  ;  Adrian  vi.  (1522- 

1523),  16,  320,  322  ;  Clement  vii. 

(1523-1534),  322,   380  ;   Paul  in. 

(1534-1549),  378  ;  Paul  IV.  (1555- 

1559),  185. 
Pope's  House y  the  Church  is,  11,  194, 

205,  235,  483. 
Popular  literature,  on  the  Lutheran 

controversy,  300/.  ;  on  the  Augs- 
burg/?iierim,  392. 
Portugal,  29. 
Pastil  la,  the,  of  Nicholas  de  Lyra, 

117. 
Postills,  Luther's,  409. 


Frmmunire,  statutes  of,  11. 

Pragmatic  Sanction  of  Bourges,  24. 

Preachers  and  towns,  310. 

Preaching  in  the  later  Middle  Ages, 
117/ 

Prices,  rise  in,  at  close  of  MiddU 
Ages,  112. 

Prierias,  Silvester  Mazzolini  of  Prierio, 
230,  247,  303. 

Priesthood,  conception  of,  in  the 
mediaeval  Church,  3,  438  ;  made 
clear  by  an  interdict,  439  ;  Colet 
refused  to  accept  it,  170  ;  Luther 
emancipated  men  from,  193,  444  ; 
the,  of  all  believers,  240,  244,  380, 
435/ 

Priests  disliked,  96. 

Princes,  the,  of  Germany  represented 
settled  government,  36. 

Printing  made  art  and  literature 
democratic,  45  ;  in  Germany  used 
from  the  beginning  to  spread  de- 
votional literature,  126. 

Processions,  ecclesiastical,  119,  362. 

Frocurationes,  13. 

Proles,  Andreas,  140,  163. 

Protest,  the,  at  Speyer,  346;  the 
second,  371. 

Prussia,  East,  326,  386. 

jRechtern,  non  fechten  sondern,  372  ». 

Bed  Cross,  the,  214. 

Regensburg  (Ratisbon),  conference 
at,  363,  379/. 

ReichsTcammersgericht,  372,  375,  377, 
379. 

Reich sregiment,  the,  36,  38,  317, 
320,  322,  323,  324,  338. 

Relaxatio  deinjunctapoenitentia,  219. 

Religious  background  of  the  claim  for 
papal  universal  supremacy,  2. 

Religious  life  at  the  close  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  131 ;  a  non-ecclesias- 
tical religion,  139/ 

Religious  pioneers  have  one  method, 
432. 

Religious  War,  the,  in  Germany, 
389/. 

Renaissance,  the,  period  of  transition 
from  the  mediaeval  to  the  modern 
world,  42  ;  beginning  of  science, 
42/  ;  geographical  exploration, 
43 ;  a  revolution  in  art,  44  ;  reli- 
gion of  the,  45 ;  revival  of  letters, 
46/ 

Rene  of  Provence,  23. 

Reservations,  papal,  9,  24. 

Resolutlones  of  Luther,  230/. 
'  Reuchlin,  67/. 


INDEX 


525 


Reutlingen,  347,  368,  891. 

Revival  of  religion  in  the  fifteenth 

century,  127/. 
Revolts.     See  ISocial  revolts. 
Rhegius,  Urban,  306,  310. 
Rhodes,  19. 
Robber-knights,  83. 
Rohrbach,   Jaklein,  a  leader  in  the 

Peasants'  War,  330. 
RoU-Bviider,  .53. 
Roman  Empire,  Holy,  31/. 
Roman   Law   and    the    peasants    of 

Germany,  107. 
Roman  lawyers  and  their  influence  on 

theology,  168. 
Romans,    King  of  the,   81,   39,  360, 

394. 
Rome,  ancient,  the  Papacy  claims  to 

succeed,  1/. 
Rome,  Luther  in,  207  ;  sack  of,  266, 

343. 
Rostock,  374. 
Roumania,  19. 

Sachs,  Hans,  93,  307  w.,  310. 

Sacrament  of  the  Supper,  353/., 
377 ;  Zwingli  on  the,  355,  357  ; 
Wessel  on  the,  355 ;  Honius  on 
the,  355  ;  Luther  on  the,  358/.  ; 
Carlstadt  on  the,  356. 

Sacramental  efficacy,  232,  248,  478/ 

Sacraments,  Colet  on  the,  171. 

Sacraments,  the  number  of  the,  242. 

Safe-conducts  for  Luther,  267  w.,  273 
and  71.,  276. 

St.  Gallen,  347. 

Salerno,  University  of,  46. 

Salzburg,  Peasants'  War  in,  330. 

Samlund,  the  Bishop  of,  a  Lutheran, 
306. 

San  Marino,  349. 

Saracens,  18. 

Satisfactions,  216/,  447. 

Savonarola,  22  ;  youth  and  educa 
tion,  158;  sympathy  with  the  New 
Learning,  159  ;  disciples  among 
the  Italian  Humanists,  161/  ;  a 
mediaeval  thinker,  163. 

Saxon  Visitations,  405/ 

Saxony.  Ernestine  {Electoral  till 
1547,  then  Ducal),  secular  super- 
intendence of  the  Church  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  140,  259;  206, 
214,  250,  316,  318,  347,  3S6,  407. 

Saxony,  Elector  of,  Frederick,  makes 
a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Ijand, 
130,  258  ;  collects  relics,  214,  258  ; 
obtains  an  Indulgence  for  his 
church,    180,   214 ;   for  a   bridge, 


269  ;  his  family  policy  of  control- 
ling  the  Church,  141  ;  founds  the 
University  of  Wittenberg,  206/  ; 
forbids  Tetzel  to  enter  his  terri- 
tories, 213  ;  protects  Luther,  232/, 
297  ;  his  religious  position,  258/'., 
292  ;  at  the  Diet  of  Worms,  263, 
292  ;  provides  for  Luther's  safety, 
297  ;  troubled  at  the  disturbances 
at  Wittenberg,  316/,  334  ;  death, 
336. 

John,  brother  of  Frederick,  292, 
316,  334,  341,  345;  signs  thePro- 
tests,  346,  371 ;  refuses  the  nuncio's 
benediction,  360,  361  ;  signs  tlie 
Augsburg  Confession,  363/  ;  joins 
the  Schmalkald  League,  373. 

John  Frederick,  son  of  John, 
signs  the  Augsburg  Confession, 
3ti3;  marries  Sibylla  of  Cleves, 
382;  "the  born  Elector,"  394; 
deprived  of  tha  Electorate  and  im- 
prisoned, 384,  389  ;  death,  394  ; 
Frederick  (Duke,  not  Elector),  son 
of  John  Frederick,  397. 

Saxony,  Albertine  {Ducal  till  1547, 
then  Electoral),  214. 

Saxony,  Albertine,  Duke  of,  George, 
at  Leipzig  Disputation,  237/  ; 
desires  a  Reformation,  257,  293, 
325  ;  gives  a  safe-conduct  for 
Luther,  273  w.,  276;  interferes  in 
the  affairs  of  Wittenberg,  316 ; 
published  Edict  of  Worms,  319; 
feared  the  Hussites,  238,  324  ; 
member  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
League,  341  ;  his  daughter  married 
Philip  of  Hesse,  344,  380  ;  death, 
377. 
Henry,  brother  of  George,  377. 
Maurice  (Elector  from  1547),  son 
of  Henry,  married  a  daughter  of 
Philip  of  Hes.se,  382  ;  received  the 
Electorate,  384  and  n.  ;  took  the 
Emperor's  side  in  the  Religious 
War,  389  ;  the  Leipzig  Interim, 
391  n. ;  attacked  the  Emperor,  393  ; 
at  the  Conference  at  Passau,  393  ; 
death,  395. 
Augustus  (Elector),  396. 

Scala  sancta  at  Rome,  207. 

Scandinavia,  19;  the  Reformation  in, 
417/ 

Schappeller  and  the  Twelve  Articles 
of  the  Peasants,  333. 

Scheurl,   Christopher,   of  Niirnberg, 
256. 

Schism,  the  Gieat,  5,  136. 

Schlettstadt  in  Elsass,  school  at,  62, 


26 


INDEX 


Schmallcald  Articles,  374, 467  n.,  468. 
Schmalkald  League,  373/.,  380,  382, 

383. 
Schmalkalden,  373. 
Schnepf,  Erliard,  Reformer  of  Tubin- 
gen, 391. 
Scholastic,  the  New,  325. 
Scholastic   Theology,   55,    118,     125, 
159,    161,    167,    169,    173,    181, 
199/.,  210,  219,  221,  223/.,  253; 
condemned  by  Luther,  211  ;  teaches 
work-righteousness,  211,  450,  469  ; 
is  sophistry y  469  ;  faith  and  reason 
in,  469. 
Schools  in  Germany,  51/. 
Schott,     Peter,    endows    a    people's 

preacher  for  Strassburg,  118. 
Schurf,  Jerome,  professor  of  Law  at 

Wittenberg,  276,  280,  281,  317. 
Sehwabach  Articles,  359. 
Scientific,  the   scientific  element  in 

theology  is  the  fleeting,  167. 
Scotland,    21  ;    Luther's  books  pro- 
hibited in,  299,  388. 
Scotus,  John  Duns,  55,  169, 178,  196, 

223,  449. 
Scripture^  the  doctrine  of ;  Scripture, 
a  personal  rather  than  a  dogmatic 
revelation,  165,  453 ;  mis-state- 
ment of  the  Reformation  view,  453  ; 
differences  in  meaning  of  word, 
454  ;  unity  in,  natural  and  arbi- 
trary, 455  ;  theory  of  various  senses, 
165,  196  ?i.,  456;  faith  and,  459, 
461  ;  Lacordaire  on  the  Protestant 
doctrine  of,  457  ;  gives  direct  com- 
munion with  God,  460;  what  is 
the  infallibility  of,  461/.,  464; 
Scripture  and  the  word  of  God, 
461/.  ;  human  and  divine  elements 
in,  464,  465 ;  inerrancy,  464 ; 
Calvin  on  the  authority  of,  465  ; 
place  for  the  Higher  Criticism, 
466/.  }  in  the  Reformation  Creeds, 
467  n. 
Scriptures  in  the  mediaeval  Church, 
147/.,  454./f.  ;  reading  the,  a  mark 
of  heresy^  149. 
Secular  supervision  of  religious  affairs 

in  the  fifteenth  century,  140. 
Servia,  19. 
Sibylla    of    Cleves,    wife    of   John 

Frederick  of  Saxony,  382,  389. 
Sicily,    part   of  Naples,    33 ;    Greek 

spoken  in,  46. 
Sickingen,    Francis  von,    268,   273, 

^295,  30G  and  n.,  323. 
Siebenberger,  Maximilian,  281. 
Simnel,  Lambert,  21. 


Sitten,  Cardinal  von,  admires  Luther, 

257. 
Social  conditions  at  the  close  of  the 

Middle  Ages,  79/ 
Social  revolts   in   the  later  Middle 

Ages,    95/  ;    not    exclusively    of 

peasants,  96  ;  detestation  of  priests, 

96  ;  impregnated  by  religious  senti- 
ment, 97  ;  Hans  Bohm,  99  ;  Bund- 

schuh  revolts,  103  ;  causes  of  the 

revolts,  106/ 
Socius  itinerarius,  275. 
Spain,  7,  18,  19,  20,  21  ;  divisions  of, 

29  ;  Inquisition  in,  266. 
Spalatin    (George    Burkhardt    from 

Spelt),  66,  185,  232,  250,  274,  276, 

278,  291  w.,  292. 
Spaniards  at  the  Diet  of  "Worms,  292, 
Spanish  merchants  at  Worms,  269. 
Spanish  troops  in  Germany,  389,  392. 
Speyer,  delegates  from  the  German 

towns    meet   at,   38 ;    a  National 

Council  for  Germany  to  meet  at, 

323.     See  Diet. 
Spinning-room,  the,  94. 
Spiritual,  meaning  of  the  word  in 

the  Middle  Ages,  7. 
Spiritual  Estate,  the  false  and  the 

true,  243,  441. 
Sprengel,  Lazarus,  of  Niirnberg,  256. 
State  and  Church,  in  France,  23/  ; 

in  Spain,  29  ;  in  Brandenburg,  141 ; 

in  Saxony,  140. 
States  of  the  Church,  32/ 
States-General  of  France,  25. 
Staupitz,    Johann,    163,    185,    202, 

205/,  256. 
Stoke-on-Trent,  battle  of,  21. 
Stolle,  Konrad,  author  of  the  Thur- 

ingian  Chronicle,  99  n. 
Storch,  Nicholas,  one  of  the  Zwickau 

prophets,  314. 
Strassburg,  Humanisfs  in,  60  ;  pojui- 

lation  of,  87  ;  the  Brethren  in,  152  ; 

deputies  from,  at  Worms,  282 ;  111, 
309/.,  346,  347,  368. 
Stubner,  Marcus  Thoma,  314. 
Student-hostels,  54,  56  ;  dress,  56. 
Students,  wandering,  50,  54 ;  Breslau, 
the  paradise  of,  53 ;  burn  Tetzel's 
Theses,  233  ;  251. 
Sturm,  Caspar,  tlie  herald  who  con- 
veyed Luther  to  Worms,  275/. 
Styria,  peasant  revolts  in,  330. 
Subsidies,  ecclesiastical,  13. 
Sum  of  Christianity,  the,  430. 
Superintendents     in     the     Lutheran 

Churches,  404,  411. 
Supremacy  claimed    by  the    Popea, 


INDEX 


627 


temporal,     5/. ;     spiritual,     7/.  ; 

Luther  begins  to  doubt  the,  235. 
Suso,  Heinrich,  203. 
Swabia,  the  Peasants'  War  in,  330, 

333,  334. 
Swabian  League,  323,  340,  376,  377. 
Swan,   thCy   hotel    in    Worms,   274, 

276. 
Swaven,  Peter,  at  Worms,  275. 
Swiss,    the,    popular    in    Germany, 

95/. 
Synods  in  the  Lutheran  Churches, 

413,  415. 
Syria,  18. 

Taborites  (extreme  Hussites),  97,  838. 

Taille,  the,  25. 

Tausen,  Hans,  the  Danish  Luther, 
420. 

Temporal  supremacy  of  the  Pope, 
5/. 

Teriiaries  of  St.  Francis,  116. 

Tertullian  on  mitigation  of  ecclesias- 
tical sentences,  217  ?i. 

Tetzel,  John,  an  Indulgence-seller, 
213,  229,  235. 

Texiualis,  202. 

Theodore  of  Ga^a,  47. 

Theodosius,  Code  of,  44. 

Theological  proof  of  universal  papal 
supremacy,  4. 

Theological  phraseology,  Luther  and 
technical,  210,  471. 

Theology,  Luther's  lectures  on,  208. 
See  Scholastic  Theology. 

Thesaurus  meritorum  site  indulgenti- 
arum,  219,  229. 

Theses,  Luther's,  against  Indulgences, 
215Jf.,  350  ;  make  six  assertions, 
229  ;  wide  circulation,  230  ;  Zwing- 
li's,  350. 

This  is  My  Body,  355. 

Thomas  Aquinas,  on  universal  papal 
supremacy,  4 ;  his  knowledge  of 
Greek,  46  n.  ;  studied  by  Savona- 
rola, 159,  161  ;  on  Indulgences, 
221,  224  ;  55,  57,  167  ff.,  449. 

Thomas  h  Kempis,  126. 

Thun,  Frederick  von,  287. 

Thiiringia,  Peasants'  War  in,  831  ; 
193,  208. 

Tithes,  ecclesiastical,  12,  97/.,  104. 

Tolomeo  of  Lucca,  a  canonist  and 
theologian,  4w, 

Tournaments,  371  n. 

Tours,  18. 

Trade  in  England,  22 ;  in  France, 
25;  in  Europe,  43/.,  83/.  ;  perils 
of,  83 ;   routes  to   the   East,  85 ; 


more  a  municipal  thing  than  a 
national  affair,  80. 

Trading  companies,  English,  22 : 
German,  85^. 

Treatises,  the  three  Eeformation, 
239/. 

Trent.     See  Council. 

Trier,  Archbishop  of,  35,  270  ;  head 
of  the  commission  to  confer  with 
Luther  at  the  Diet  of  Worms,  294  ; 
heard  a  statement  from  Luther 
under  seal  of  confession,  295. 

Triumph  of  Truth,  the,  307. 

Truchsess,  general  of  the  Swabian 
League,  330,  334. 

Tubingen,  391. 

Turkish  invasions  dreaded  in  Ger- 
many, 19,  129,  374. 

Tunstall,  Wolsey's  agent  at  Worms, 
298  and  n. 

Twelve  Articles  in  the  Peasants'  War, 
331,  336,  337. 

Tyler,  Wat,  20. 

Ubiquity,  doctrine  of,  357,  478. 

Ulm,  320,  346,  347,  391. 

Ulrich,  Duke  of  Wurtemburg,  37, 
376. 

Unitas  Fratrum  (1452),  154/. 

Universities,  of  Paris,  12 ;  of  Ger- 
many, 53. 

Upsala,  422. 

Urban,  Heinrich,  66. 

Ursulas,  St.,  Little  Ship,  145. 

Utopia  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  186, 
328. 

Valdes,  Alfonso  de,  on  the  Edict  ol 

Worms,  298/. 
Valentia,  27. 
Valla,  Lauren  tins,  49. 
Valor    ecclesiasticus    of    commuted 

Annates,  13  and  to. 
Vasco  da  Gama,  85. 
Vatican  Library,  49,  262. 
Venezuela,  German  colony  in,  85. 
Venice,  32/  ;  Germans  in,  50,  83. 
Vicars  of  God,  the  Emperor  and  the 

Pope,  31. 
Vienna,   Concordat  of,   11  ;    defence 

of,  19,  37,  374;  the  Latin   War 

in,  56 ;  378. 
Village,  life  in  a,  90/.  ;  government, 

92  ;  a,  sold  to  buy  a  velvet  robe, 

109. 
Virgin,  the  Blessed,  123  ;  the  Inter- 
cessor, 135;  confraternities  of  the, 

135  ;    hymns  in   honour  of,    135  ; 

patroness     of     the     Augustinian 


528 


INDEX 


Eremites,  138  ;  of  the  University 
of  Wittenberg,  205  ;  venerated  in 
the  social  revolts,  97,  100,  135  ; 
Immaculate  Conception  of  the,  135, 
138. 

Visitations,  ecclesiastical,  405 jf.  ; 
Saxon,  405  f. 

Vogler,  Georg,  at  Worms,  274,  284. 

Vulgate,  the,  studied  in  schools,  51  ; 
its  use  in  the  mediaeval  Church, 
147/.  ;  editions  in  the  vernacular, 
147,  149/  ;  the  German,  150,  309. 

Waldenses,  238. 

Waif  art  und  Sirasse  zu  Sant  Jacob, 

132,  226. 
Wallachia,  19. 
Wandering  Students,  54. 
Wanner,  Johann,  310. 
Warbeck,  Perkin,  21. 
Wartburg,  the,  297,  402. 
Wealth,  based  on  possession  of  land, 

80  ;  new  sources  of,  in  trade,  84^. ; 

from  farming  Indulgences,  83. 
Wehe,  Jacob,  a  peasant  leader,  330. 
Weinsburg,  the  massacre  at,  330. 
Weisthumer,    collections    of   village 

consuetudinary    law,    90/".,    103, 

107. 
Welser,   the,    family  of   capitalists, 

85,  361. 
Wesley,  John,  and  Luther,  403. 
Wessel,  John,  58,  196. 
Wiclif,  John,  149,  238,  290. 
Wielifites,  150. 
Wimpheling,    Jacob,    52,    58,    257, 

309. 
Wimpina,    Conrad,    wrote    counter- 
theses,  229. 
Windsheim,  347. 
Weissenburg,  347. 


Wittenberg,  town  of,  204,  206,  2S4 

238,  389. 

Wittenberg,  the  "tumult"  in,  313 
320. 

Wittenberg,  University  of,  205,  208, 
232,  250,  311/. 

Wittenberg  Concord,  377. 

Wittenberg  Nightingale,  310. 

Wittenberg  Ordinance  (1522),  315, 
401. 

Wolfenbiittel  Library,  Luther's  MSSL 
in  the,  209. 

Wolsey,  Cardinal,  184,  298. 

Worms,  Edict  of,  297,  298,  310,  319 
andw.,  342/,  369,  345;  confer- 
ence with  Luther  at,  293.  See 
Diet. 

Wiirtemburg,  Duchy  of,  seized  by 
the  House  of  Hapsburg,  37  ;  re- 
covered by  its  Duke,  376/,  «92, 
395. 

Wiirzburg,  the  Bishop  of,  334. 

Zasius,  Ulrich  of  Freiburg,  257. 

ZeU,  Matthew,  350. 

Zerbst,  214. 

Zimmerische  Chronik,  88,  184. 

Zurich,  350. 

Zwickau,  206,  314,  318. 

Zwickau  Prophets,  the,  314,  320, 
325. 

Zwilling  an  Augustinian  Eremite 
preacher,  313,  316. 

Zwingli,  relations  with  Luther, 
M7ff.  ;  influenced  by  Humanism 
348 ;  social  environment,  348 
South  German  towns  under  his 
influence,  351  ;  at  Marburg,  352.^. 
his  doctrine  of  the  Sacrament  o 
the  Supper,  356 ;  his  death,  374 
383,  337,  352,  353,  888,  463,  467  m. 


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Christian  Ethics.   By  newman  smyth,  d.d. 

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handles,  we  are  confident  that  it  will  be  a  help  to  the  task  of  the  moral 
understandmg  and  interpretation  of  human  life." — The  Living  Church. 

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Apologetics ;    or,    Christianity    Defensively    Stated. 

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stimulating  to  faith.  .  .  .  Without  commenting  further,  we  repeat  that 
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library  should  be  without  it." — Zion's  Herald. 

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Old  Testament  History,    by  henry  preserved  smith,  d.d. 

"  Prof.  Smith  has,  by  his  comprehensive  and  vitalized  history,  laid  all  who 
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The  Theology  of  the  New  Testament.    By  george  b. 

Stevens,  D.D.,  IX.D. 

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History  of   Christian    Doctrine.    By  george  p.  fisher. 

D.D.,  LL.D. 

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of  Doctrine  that  we  have  in  English." — The  New  York  Evangelist. 

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The    Christian    Pastor   and  the   Working   Church. 

By  Washington  Gladden,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

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finds  in  it  a  multitude  of  practical  suggestions  for  the  development  of 
the  spiritual  and  working  life  of  the  Church,  and  the  answer  to  many 
problems  that  are  a  constant  perplexity  to  the  faithful  minister." 

— The  Christian  Intelligencer. 
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Christian     Institutions.        By   Alexander  v.  B.  Allen,  d.d. 

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The  Theology  of  the  Old  Testament.    By  a.  b.  Davidson, 

D.D.,  LL.D.,  D.Litt. 

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The  Christian  Doctrine  of  Salvation.    By  george  b. 

Stevens,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

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The  Ancient  Catholic  Church.  By  Robert  rainey,  d.d.,ll.d. 

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perience the  volume  will  easily  find  its  place  in  the  front  rank  among 
books  on  the  subject  composed  in  the  English  language." — The  Interior, 

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The  Reformation  in  Germany.    By  thomas  m.  Lindsay, 

M.A.,  D.D. 

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worthy  and  scholarly  account  it  is  so  arranged  that  for  the  student  of 
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The  Reformation  in  Lands  Beyond  Germany.  ByXHOMAs 

M.  Lindsay,  D.D. 

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sical English  History  of  the  Reformation." — The  Expository  Times. 

"  The  good  balance  of  material  which  he  has  attained  by  a  self-denying 
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Canon  and  Text  of  the  New  Testament.    By  Caspar  rene 

Gregory,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

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matter  in  hand  is  admirable.  From  first  to  last,  the  purpose  of  the 
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The  Greek  and  Eastern  Churches.    By  Walter  f.  adeney, 

M.A.,  D.D. 

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balanced  and  judicious  treatment." — Prof.  Willtavt  Adams  Brown. 

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The  Christian  Doctrine  of  God.  By  William  n.clarke,d.d. 

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the  matter  in  hand  is  admirable.  From  first  to  last,  the  purpose  of  the 
author  is  not  to  show  upon  how  slight  basis  our  confidence  in  the 
canonicity  of  the  New  Testament  is  based,  but  rather  upon  how  solid 
a  foundation  our  confidence  rests." — Journal  and  Messenger. 

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An  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  New  Testa- 

ment.     By  James  Moffatt,  B.D.,  D.D. 

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lems at  issue,  it  will  bear  comparison  with  Driver's  companion  volume 
on  the  literature  of  the  Old  Testament,  than  which  no  higher  praise 
can  be  given.  .  .  .  The  student  will  find  in  Dr.  Moffatt 's  volume  the 
most  complete  presentation  as  yet  attempted  by  any  scholar  of  all  that 
modern  critical  scholarship  has  done  for  the  literature  of  the  New 
Testament. ' ' — Scotsman, 

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The  International 

Critical  Commentary 

On  the  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments 


EDITORS'    PREFACE 


THERE  are  now  before  the  public  many  Commentaries, 
written  by  British  and  American  divines,  of  a  popular 
or  homiletical  character.  The  Cambridge  Bible  for 
Schools,  the  Handbooks  for  Bible  Classes  and  Private  Students, 
The  Speaker's  Cojnmentary,  The  Popular  Commentary  (Schaff), 
The  Expositor's  Bible,  and  other  similar  series,  have  their 
special  place  and  importance.  But  they  do  not  enter  into  the 
field  of  Critical  Biblical  scholarship  occupied  by  such  series  of 
Commentaries  as  the  Kurzgefasstes  exegetisches  Hatidbuch  zum 
A.  T  ;  De  Wette's  Kurzgefasstes  exegetisches  Handbuch  zum 
N.  T. ;  Meyer's  Kritisch-exegetischer  Kommentar ;  Keil  and 
Delitzsch's  Biblischer  Commentar  ilber  das  A.  T. ;  Lange's 
Theologisch-homiletisches  Bibelwerk ;  Nowack's  Handkommentar 
zum  A.  T.  ;  Holtzmann's  Handkommentar  zum  N.  T.  Several 
of  these  have  been  translated,  edited,  and  in  some  cases  enlarged 
and  adapted,  for  the  English-speaking  public  ;  others  are  in 
process  of  translation.  But  no  corresponding  series  by  British 
or  American  divines  has  hitherto  been  produced.  The  way  has 
been  prepared  by  special  Commentaries  by  Cheyne,  EUicott, 
Kalisch,  Lightfoot,  Perowne,  Westcott,  and  others;  and  the 
time  has  come,  in  the  judgment  of  the  projectors  of  this  enter- 
prise, when  it  is  practicable  to  combine  British  and  American 
scholars  in  the  production  of  a  critical,  comprehensive 
Commentary  that  will  be  abreast  of  modern  biblical  scholarship, 
and  in  a  measure  lead  its  van. 


The  International  Critical  Commentarv 


Messrs.  Charles  Scribner's  Sons  of  New  York,  and  Messrs. 
T.  &  T.  Clark  of  Edinburgh,  propose  to  publish  such  a  series 
of  Commentaries  on  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  under  the 
editorship  of  Prof.  C.  A.  Briggs,  D.D.,  D.Litt.,  in  America,  and 
of  Prof.  S.  R.  Driver,  D.D.,  D.Litt.,  for  the  Old  Testament,  and 
the  Rev.  Alfred  Plummer,  D.D.,  for  the  New  Testament,  in 
Great  Britain. 

The  Commentaries  will  be  international  and  inter-confessional, 
and  will  be  free  from  polemical  and  ecclesiastical  bias.  They 
will  be  based  upon  a  thorough  critical  study  of  the  original  texts 
of  the  Bible,  and  upon  critical  methods  of  interpretation.  They 
are  designed  chiefly  for  students  and  clergymen,  and  will  be 
written  in  a  compact  style.  Each  book  will  be  preceded  by  an 
Introduction,  stating  the  results  of  criticism  upon  it,  and  discuss- 
ing impartially  the  questions  still  remaining  open.  The  details 
of  criticism  will  appear  in  their  proper  place  in  the  body  of  the 
Commentary.  Each  section  of  the  Text  will  be  introduced 
with  a  paraphrase,  or  summary  of  contents.  Technical  details 
of  textual  and  philological  criticism  will,  as  a  rule,  be  kept 
distinct  from  matter  of  a  more  general  character ;  and  in  the 
Old  Testament  the  exegetical  notes  will  be  arranged,  as  far  as 
possible,  so  as  to  be  serviceable  to  students  not  acquainted  with 
Hebrew.  The  History  of  Interpretation  of  the  Books  will  be 
dealt  with,  when  necessary,  in  the  Introductions,  with  critical 
notices  of  the  most  important  literature  of  the  subject.  Historical 
and  Archaeological  questions,  as  well  as  questions  of  Biblical 
Theology,  are  included  in  the  plan  of  the  Commentaries,  but 
not  Practical  or  Homiletical  Exegesis.  The  Volumes  will  con- 
stitute a  uniform  series. 


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